His body was pulled from waist-deep water off Woonona Beach about 11.30am yesterday and carried onto the sand. Only eight, his slight frame hardly disturbed a blanket laid out to cover him.

Since Monday, police divers, choppers, boats, jet skis and other resources have been deployed in searching a large area of ocean for the small boy.

But in the end it was just one man, walking with his own child, who chanced on the Congolese refugee.

Rob Bemi and his daughter Tamsyn, 10, at first mistook the body for a partially submerged piece of wood.

They flagged down a lifesaver on a jet ski when they realised they were looking at the lost boy they had heard of in the news.

"We were just checking out the surf and I spotted him out there," said Mr Bemi, of Woonona.

"I knew there was a boy missing off Corrimal a couple of days ago.

"With kids of your own, it's not nice to see.

"I really feel sorry for his family but hopefully it's a little bit of closure."

The body was discovered in waters almost midway between Woonona and Bellambi beaches.

Police went to a home in Fairy Meadow to inform Eliachim's mother, Therese Milolo, of the discovery.

An ambulance was called to the house about 12.40pm after she had collapsed.

Illawarra ambulance district inspector Terry Morrow confirmed paramedics had gone to the home and taken a woman to Wollongong Hospital.

"Our hearts go out to her," he said.

Ms Milolo and Eliachim fled a civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008 and migrated to Australia.

Eliachim spoke two Congolese dialects, as well as French and English, and was a student at Illawarra Christian School.

The family regularly attended Wollongong Church of Christ, where Eliachim was described as "a spritely, robust, happy member of the church" by its senior minister, Brett Gottle.

The church will hold a service devoted to Eliachim on Sunday at 10am.

The boy went for a swim near Towradgi Point about 6.35pm on Monday with a female relative and witnesses said he was quickly dragged off his feet and underwater by a strong rip.

The relative sought help and a passer-by attempted a rescue without success.