Family of teenager missing after East River disappearance says Instagram dare may have been a factor

The family of a 13-year-old boy who was still missing Monday after disappearing last Friday into the East River urged parents to talk to their children about the dangers of peer pressure on social media, saying a dare circulating on Instagram might have led the boy to jump into the river.

“He was supposed to have been with the basketball kids and the soccer kids going to watch a game,” said Alena Godfrey, the great aunt of Kavion Brown — whom she identified as the missing boy — in a phone interview with Gothamist. “So I don't know what went wrong within [that period], but the kid ended up in the water.”

Brown went missing around 4 p.m. Friday, and witnesses said he entered the river from East River Park, near East 6th Street, but never came back ashore, according to police. The NYPD launched a desperate search for him, with efforts by several department units, including water and air teams.

On Sunday, Godfrey watched somberly as NYPD scuba divers continued to scour the dark waters.

“The tide was in but they did not find him,” she said through tears. “I was there the whole time.”

Godfrey said her grandchildren told her about the dare posted on Instagram, though she was not able to see it for herself because she lacks an account on the platform. (Gothamist could not immediately find posts about the dare there.)

Brown lives with his parents just a few blocks away from the river, on East 11th Street near the FDR Drive, according to his great aunt. She said he loves playing basketball, is close with his siblings, and could swim when their family visited waterparks.

“He was a kid that's never without his family,” Godfrey added. “He always was with his parents, from school to home.”

The East River can experience strong tidal currents and heavy boat traffic, experts say. Dan Shapley, a senior director at Ossining, New York-based environmental organization Riverkeeper, said swimming in the river can be dangerous due to those factors as well as hardened and walled-off shorelines that make exiting the water difficult.

In her interview with Gothamist, Godfrey implored parents and guardians of teenagers across the city to explain to them that some dares on social media can lead to deadly consequences.

“You need to speak to your kids about people saying ‘I dare you to do something,’” she said. “You need to know who's your friend and who's not your friend, because peer pressure is a big problem in this world today.”