There was one place 12-year-old Terrence Carlock was warned to stay away from, and it was there that he lost his life Sunday evening.

Like the buddies he knocked around with all summer on the streets of Donora, Terry, as he was known, was cautioned by grown-ups to steer clear of the nearby Monongahela River if there were no adults around.

"Staying away from the river ... that did come up," Jeff Carlock, Terry's great-uncle, said yesterday.

Terry, a poor swimmer at best, didn't listen Sunday, and neither did his friends. He met up with five of them across the river in Webster, on the Westmoreland County side, entered the river and drowned. His body was recovered from 15 feet of water.

Terrence Carlock

"He slipped on a rock," said schoolmate Alex Pritchard, 12, one of three youngsters at the scene who tried to rescue Terry.

"He was doing fine," Alex said. "He went swimming a couple of times. Then he went to find out how deep it was."

According to Alex and two other boys who tried to save Terry -- Cody Fisher, 11, and Terry's cousin, Sean Fronzaglio, 11 -- Terry waded into the water until it was up to his belly button and then dog-paddled farther out. He stood up on a rock, but his feet apparently slipped.

"He said he found a rock, and he was standing on it, and a couple of minutes later he was floating in the water and he said, 'Help, I'm drowning,' " Cody said.

Alex, Cody and Sean said they jumped in and swam to Terry. Sean and Alex held his arms, Terry struggled fiercely enough to dunk the two boys twice. Then, they said, the wake from a nearby pleasure boat shook Terry from their grasp, and he went under for the last time.

It's unclear how accurate the details are: The three boys disagreed on some basic points, such as whether Terry was the last of the group to arrive, and whether he could swim at all. Officials did not mention anything about a wake jarring Terry loose from the boys' grasp. One thing is certain, however, and Cody's mother summed it up best.

"It's a hard lesson to be learned," said Jane Galiyas, 47. "I knew Terry was a very good boy, and he'll be sorely missed by the whole community."

It is also certain that the Mon can be dangerous and unpredictable. John Gourn, 34, of Webster, wandered down the boat ramp yesterday to pay his respects, one of his four sons in tow.

He said this summer was the first year he could remember that the Webster Boat Club just up from the water didn't open. When the boat club is in business, he said, adults keep an eye on the kids in the area -- but that wasn't the case Sunday.

"I grew up around the river. The river's dangerous. We got a swimming pool," Mr. Gourn said. "If there's not adults, the kids shouldn't be in there."

Rostraver police said Terry ran into trouble about 30 yards from shore. Two boaters in the area saw Terry go down. They marked the spot and committed it to memory until rescue workers arrived, said Sam Woncheck, a dive team commander for the volunteer Mon Valley Divers Rescue, Search & Recovery Team.

The team practiced Sunday afternoon at Youghiogheny Dam and was heading home when the drowning alert came in around 6:43 p.m. Mr. Woncheck said he called the team's second assistant dive master, David Yelle, who was in the area and sped to the scene.

Towing a rope held by firefighters on shore, Mr. Yelle plunged into the 78-degree water. He searched the Mon, with its six inches of visibility, and found Terry after 10 minutes on the fifth pass along the river bottom, Mr. Woncheck said.

Terry was taken to Monongahela Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:35 p.m.

Many people in the neighborhood knew Terry, a handsome boy who would have entered sixth grade at Carroll Middle School.

Terry's friends and relatives described him as a typical 12-year-old with an easy smile. He liked video games, riding his bicycle and hanging around with his school chums.

Terry was the oldest of five siblings, all of whom were being raised by their grandmother, Deborah L. Carlock.

Friends remarked how polite Terry was. But they also knew him to have a mischievous spirit. His great-uncle described it as being "slick."

"He always had a smile on his face, but you could see the glint of the devil in him," said Mary Beth Menzler, owner of James A. Rabe Funeral Home. Mrs. Menzler, who went to high school with Ms. Carlock and employs her, interrupted her vacation to return to Donora to take care of Terry's arrangements.

"You just can't make sense of this," Mrs. Menzler said.

Her husband, Bob Menzler, recalled that about six weeks earlier he helped Ms. Carlock and Terry blow up an inflatable pool. He plugged a pump into his truck's outlet and let Terry turn on the car to supply the power. It was the first time the youngster had ever started a car, and Mr. Menzler said he reveled in the moment.

The next day, Mr. Menzler found out that Terry had jumped onto the pool and accidentally broken it. He wondered aloud whether Terry would still be alive had that not happened.

Donora police Chief James Brice said he saw Terry and his friends about two hours before the accident on McKean Avenue, where firefighters were wrapping up a street fair.

That's where Terry's family thought he was, said his great-uncle.

"The last conversation he had with his grandmother was going to the festival," said Mr. Carlock, 42, of Monessen.

Then Terry did what 12-year-old boys around the world do. He changed his plans at the last minute and broke the rules.

As Alex, Cody and Sean talked across the street and down from the Carlock house on Thompson Avenue yesterday, Terry's grandfather, Leonard Larkin, wandered over.

"You see what happens when you're disobedient?" he gruffly asked Sean, his other grandson.

Then he warmed, and tough love became soothing.

"Come over here. Give me a hug. I love you. See why we want you to listen? See why?" Mr. Larkin said. "Your cousin's gone. It could've been you. It could've been any of these boys."