Family seeks answers after teen found dead in Deerfield Beach canal

The body of 17-year-old D’Quan Mizzick was found Tuesday in a canal off Southwest 12th Avenue in Deerfield Beach, leaving his parents with more questions than answers about how he ended up in the water near Interstate 95.

Mizzick had been missing since Sunday, July 6, and his family said he had left the Fort Lauderdale area to help babysit younger cousins. His mother said the last text she received from him asked her to pick him up and take him to church. She said she does not believe he went swimming, adding to the uncertainty around the teenager’s final hours.

No public explanation has been given for how Mizzick got into the canal, and the gap between his disappearance and the discovery of his body has become the central question for relatives. The family’s concern is not only grief but the lack of a clear timeline connecting Sunday, when he vanished, to Tuesday, when investigators found him in the water.

The case arrives as drowning remains a major safety issue in Florida and across Broward County. The Florida Department of Health says drowning is the leading cause of unintentional death for children ages 1-4 in the state. The CDC says drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury death for children ages 5-14 and accounts for more than 4,000 unintentional deaths in the United States each year.

Broward County has a Drowning Prevention Task Force coordinated through the Florida Department of Health in Broward County, and Water SMART Broward says it works to protect children from aquatic-related injuries and disabilities through safer behaviors and education. A South Florida water-safety project cited 414 drowning deaths in Broward County from 2009 to 2018, a toll that has long placed the county among the region’s hardest-hit areas for water-related fatalities.