They left from Key Largo last week. Coast Guard called off its search Wednesday.
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Wednesday night for the two missing Naples, Florida, boaters who left from a Key Largo dock last Thursday and have been reported missing since Saturday.
Another man on the same boat, Adrian Diaz Jomolca, 31, was found alive floating in Biscayne Bay somewhere off Miami-Dade County by a civilian boat crew Sunday night around 9:30 p.m. He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital and treated for hypothermia and dehydration.
The Coast Guard has searched 10,064 square miles for the other two people, an area the size of the state of Maryland, since the weekend, the agency said in a statement Wednesday.
“The Coast Guard’s search and rescue mission is one we take very personally, and making the decision to suspend is never easy,” Christopher Eddy, search and rescue coordinator with the Coast Guard’s 7th District, said in a statement.
Jomolca, Ylianet Ybanez Hernandez, 26, and Luis Rivas Engroba, 35, left in a 23-foot Pro Line center console from the Caribbean Club, a popular bar with a small marina at mile marker 104, last Thursday, Nov. 7.
By Saturday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported to Coast Guard Sector Key West that the boat was overdue.
Jomolca told authorities he and his friends encountered a storm on Friday, which capsized the vessel. He said he swam for help, and Hernandez and Engroba stayed behind with the overturned boat. He said they were wearing life jackets, according to an FWC incident report.
The boat was found at the northern end of Biscayne Bay near Haulover Inlet Monday morning.
“Despite our best efforts, we were not able to locate Ms. Ybanez and Mr. Engroba, and our hearts go out to the entire family,” Eddy said.
In total, the search effort included three Coast Guard cutters, two of the agency’s planes, a plane from the Coast Guard Auxiliary, FWC officers and marine units from Miami-Dade Police Department, the Coast Guard said in a press release.
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 8:16 PM.
