photo #8611887

Tragedy by the Sea, 1954. Showing a married couple standing on a beach moments after learning their 19-month-old son disappeared It was a quiet afternoon in Hermosa Beach, California. A young couple stood on the sand, frozen — their faces pale with shock. Moments earlier, their 19-month-old son had wandered away while they were visiting friends nearby. The ocean stretched endlessly before them. Somewhere beyond those waves, their child had vanished. Los Angeles Times photographer John Gaunt captured them at that exact moment — the mother clutching her sweater, the father staring toward the water, helpless. The boy’s body was later found, carried in by the tide.