FORT WORTH -- Bobby Miller loved to sing and hoped to play sports at Grambling State University when he graduated from Diamond Hill-Jarvis High School, friends and family said Tuesday.

"He wanted to do so much," said Stacy Scott, Miller's guardian this year. "He wasn't afraid of anything. He has always had a man's mentality. It seemed as though he was never a child."

On Sunday, Miller, 18, disappeared while swimming with friends at Lake Worth. A 911 call was made shortly after 7 p.m. from the 7300 block of Jacksboro Highway in far northwest Fort Worth, officials said. Fort Worth Fire Department divers found Miller's body about 8 p.m. near the shore of Casino Beach Park.

Miller's mother, Jacqueline Horrice, said that Miller blew a goodbye kiss to his girlfriend and that he and two friends swam to a buoy. The others made it back.

The friends swam back out to look for him but could not find him, she said.

"They called him 'Singing Bobby,'" she said. "His favorite things were singing and playing sports.

"I moved to Houston, but he stayed here, and a family friend took care of him for us. He didn't want to live in Houston. He wanted to stay here with his friends."

Miller, a junior, was a popular student who played basketball and football.

"It has been very difficult, but we are a family at Diamond Hill," Principal Gayla Dawson said. "We are doing our best to hold each other up and cling together in our time of need."

Staff writer Eva-Marie Ayala contributed to this report.

Mitch Mitchell, 817-390-7752

Twitter@fwstcrime