text: Nashua police believe body found is that of missing teen 
   
   Nashua police said they believe a body discovered in the Merrimack River Sunday is that of a teenager who is feared to have been swept down a storm drain during a storm on Friday night. 
   
   Timeline: What we know about Jacob Goulet’s disappearance. 
   
   
   
   Around 11:40 a.m., a Massachusetts State Police helicopter spotted what appeared to be a body in the Merrimack River in Tyngsboro. By 12:20 p.m. Tyngsboro police and firefighters recovered the body of a young man. 
   
   Police said Sunday afternoon that the identity of the body has not been confirmed, but they believe it’s Jacob Goulet, 16. 
   
   Goulet’s parents filed a missing person’s report around 8:48 a.m. Saturday after he didn’t return home from visiting a friend on Friday night. 
   
   His family was frantically searching for him. His uncle and cousin yelled for him into storm drains throughout the city. 
   
   “I just hope that maybe he might have fallen in and he’s just hanging on, and maybe he’s too cold to yell. Maybe we’ll see him, we’ll hear him. Just can’t stop trying, you know?” said Goulet’s uncle, Darren Blouin. 
   
   “He just turned 16. He’s a good kid. He doesn’t get in trouble, likes video games, like listening to music,” said Goulet’s cousin, Sarah Blouin. 
   
   Goulet is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs around 200 pounds. He has short, black hair on the sides with longer hair along the top of his head. He has blue eyes. He was last wearing a denim vest with metal studs on it, a gray T-shirt, black shorts and black Converse All-Star sneakers. 
   
   Based on that description, Nashua police said the body appears to be Goulet, but police will not officially identify the body until the Massachusetts Medical Examiner’s Office makes a positive identification. 
   
   On Friday, officers responded to a drain behind 75 Main St. and the north side of Water Street for a report that a person may have fallen down a storm drain. 
   
   "A citizen in the area noted an open sewer cover with personal items on the ground nearby. Several people were interviewed, but no one witnessed anyone falling through the hole," Nashua police Chief Andrew Lavoie said. 
   
   Despite there being no witnesses, Nashua police said they believe Goulet fell down the storm drain, and a massive search began Saturday. 
   
   Police said they found items, including a baseball cap and an umbrella, near the drain, but no identifying information. Based on information given by Goulet’s parents and surveillance footage, police said they had reason to believe that the items could belong to Goulet. 
   
   Officers said areas searched included the Nashua River, the Merrimack River and the entire underwater storm drain system north of Water Street and south to Sawmill Drive. 
   
   The Nashua Fire Department and its dive team, the city of Nashua Waste Water Department, Division of Public Works, New Hampshire State Police, Massachusetts State Police and New Hampshire Fish and Game assisted with the effort. 
   
   Public works assisted in the search, and a private contractor was called in to search the sewers with cameras, according to Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess. 
   
   Donchess said that approximately 1,000 feet of the sewer system had been searched as of Sunday afternoon. 
   
   Donchess described the storm drain that Goulet may have fallen into as an "interceptor," which connects to the waste water treatment plant over "several miles" of pipeline. 
   
   The interceptor is said to have a steep drop and could be 20 feet deep. 
   
   Donchess said that there is no direct flow to the Merrimack River from the drain in question, but that there is an overflow system in place where water could be discharged into the river during a storm. 
   
   Officials are unsure how the cover came off of the storm drain. The storm drain cover was resecured with bolts Sunday afternoon. 
   
   "No one has ever potentially fallen into the sewer system as far as we know, and these covers don’t typically come off," Donchess said. 
   
   Donchess said that grief counselors will be available at Nashua North on Monday to talk to Goulet’s classmates. 
   
   "We feel so badly for the family -- for Jacob’s family, his parents, for the kids who know him at the high school. We’ve asked that the school department have grief counselors available for the kids at Nashua High School North," Donchess said. 
   
   Meanwhile, his friends and family are reeling after the latest developments. 
   
   The high school is putting together a list of his friends and reaching out to them. The principal said they will also send a note to parents on Sunday evening to update them on the situation. 
   
   Many people in Nashua, some who didn’t even know Goulet, were emotional over the situation. 
   
   "I have kids -- a 14- and a 20-year-old -- so as a parent, I hope somebody would care about my kid," Jessica Keyza said. 
   
   A tribute to Goulet grew by the hour Sunday night. 
   
   Friends sat together and consoled each other while many people -- some total strangers to Goulet -- left flowers at the site. 
   
   "I wouldn’t want it to be one of my boys. That shouldn’t have happened," Diana Bela said. 
   
   Nicholas Brown, one of Goulet’s best friends, left a Converse shoe -- Goulet’s favorite brand -- with a note inside at the memorial. 
   
   Brown said he saw Goulet on Friday, just hours before he disappeared while walking home from a friend’s house. 
   
   "Anything sad, he would just like, try to be happy about it," Brown said. "Or he’d try to make a joke of something, just to get him by, you know." 
   
   "It doesn’t seem real to me that something like this could happen, where I could be making jokes with him in second block of school, and then a day later, he turns up missing," Brown said. ||||| Nashua Public Works employee Chris Nelson and a co-worker worked to repair a sewer cover that missing teen Jacob Goulet is thought to have fallen into in Nashua, N.H. 
   
   NASHUA — Authorities said Sunday they believed they had found the body of a missing teen floating in the Merrimack River, bringing a heartbreaking end to a days-long search for the Nashua High School North student who might have fallen into an open sewer. 
   
   Jacob Goulet, 16, disappeared during an intense rainstorm Friday. Friends, family, and teachers had held out hope through the weekend, but by Sunday afternoon, Nashua police had confirmed their worst fears. 
   
   “Our thoughts and prayers are with Jacob’s family, friends, classmates, [and] the entire Nashua community at the probable tragic loss of Jacob Goulet,” the department wrote on Twitter. 
   
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   Police said they feared Goulet fell at least 20 feet down an open sewer near 75 Main St. in Nashua during the downpours Friday evening. He could have ended up in the river through the overflow of water through the system following Friday evening’s intense downpour. 
   
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   Nashua officials said Sunday that the sewer should not have been open, and they were looking into what happened. 
   
   Related Links Read Story Nashua police say teen may have fallen through drain Police believe Jacob Goulet fell through a storm drain during heavy rain on Friday night. 
   
   As news of Goulet’s apparent death spread, there was an outpouring of shock and grief. 
   
   Lauren Comeau, who said she is a family friend and former co-worker of Goulet’s father, said in a Facebook message to the Globe that the loss had shaken the Nashua community, and parents were hugging their children a little tighter on Sunday. 
   
   “Jacob was a sweet boy with a great heart,” she said. “He is his father Billy’s whole world.” 
   
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   Search teams had scoured miles of river, treatment plants, and sewer pipes for the teen, whose family had reported him missing Saturday morning after looking for him all night. 
   
   A Massachusetts State Police helicopter crew sighted a body floating near Parlee Farms in Tyngsborough at 11:38 a.m. Sunday, said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman. 
   
   A positive identification must still be made by the Massachusetts chief medical examiner, Nashua police said in a statement, but the body and clothing fit the description of Goulet. 
   
   Officers from the Nashua police dive team and Special Investigations Division traveled to Tyngsborough, where the dive team and Tyngsborough Fire Rescue pulled the body from the water, Nashua police said. 
   
   Little is known about what happened Friday night after Goulet left a friend’s house to walk home, but he was seen near the sewer in a surveillance video. 
   
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   No one saw him fall, but a caller reported Friday night that someone could have plunged into the sewer, after the caller found a baseball cap and an umbrella on the ground near the opening, Nashua police said. 
   
   Goulet’s parents told police the items belonged to their son. 
   
   Rescuers arrived Friday to find dangerous conditions. 
   
   “They were literally thinking of sending people into that hole,” Nashua Police Chief Andrew Lavoie said. “The water flow was just, without being positive that someone was down there, was just absolutely unsafe.” 
   
   Nashua Public Works employees were at the scene Sunday attempting to secure the sewer, which was surrounded by six cones. 
   
   Nashua’s director of public works could not be reached for comment Sunday. 
   
   Nashua Mayor James Donchess said at a Sunday press conference that such covers don’t typically come off and that nothing like the incident had happened in the city before. 
   
   “We’re going to be looking into how that may have come off,” Donchess said, “and whether it could’ve been water or air or some other cause. That’s not clear now.” 
   
   The sewer lies at the juncture of two pipes, he said, and leads to a treatment plant several miles away. Donchess said there are 900 covers in the system. The one Goulet might have fallen through is about 4 feet by 4 feet. 
   
   “This is a tragedy for our community,” Donchess said. “We still are somewhat of a small town. I know people whose kids are friendly with Jacob.” 
   
   Some of those close to Goulet attended the press conference but sat quietly in the back and declined to comment. His parents and siblings could not be reached. 
   
   Nashua High School North Principal Marianne Busteed said she was planning to meet with a crisis team Monday morning and prepare for the day and that grief counselors will be available for students. 
   
   Supporters created a GoFundMe page to raise money for Goulet’s funeral costs. By Sunday evening, they had raised more than $3,000 toward a goal of $8,000. 
   
   Cristela Guerra can be reached at cristela.guerra@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @CristelaGuerra . Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com . Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox
target: – Sad news out of Nashua, NH, after police say they believe a body found floating in a river is that of a high school student who likely plunged 20 feet into an open sewer. Jacob Goulet, 16, was last seen Friday night after he left a friend's house during a torrential rainstorm, WMUR reports. His family reported him missing Saturday morning. A Massachusetts State Police helicopter spotted a body floating in the Merrimack River in neighboring Tyngsboro on Sunday morning. A positive ID is pending, but cops said they believe the body is Jacob's. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Jacob’s family, friends, classmates," Nashua Police wrote on Twitter. Cops were investigating why the sewer cover was open. They described a steep drop into a storm drain that links to a water treatment plant. During heavy rains an overflow system discharges water directly into the river. A frantic search began Saturday morning after a passerby spotted the open sewer and beside it a baseball cap and umbrella believed to be Jacob's. Surveillance video confirmed the teen was in the area, WMUR reports. Jacob's family searched storm drains across the city, hoping perhaps he was trapped inside one and would hear their shouts. "Maybe he might have fallen in and he’s just hanging on, and maybe he’s too cold to yell," his uncle, Darren Blouin, told WMUR. Devastated family and friends recalled Jacob, who recently turned 16, as a good kid who avoided trouble and liked video games. "Jacob is a sweet boy with a great heart,” family friend Lauren Comeau told the Boston Globe. "He is his father Billy’s whole world." (A freak hammock accident killed this teen.)