Her dinghy overturned Wednesday off Key West. Her body was found Friday, authorities say
The Coast Guard on Friday afternoon found the body of a woman who disappeared Wednesday morning after the dinghy she was on capsized off a small island near Key West.
The agency said that a woman’s body was found about 200 yards from Mule Key and reported to the Coast Guard around 1 p.m.
Local authorities identified her as Jewel Hammond, a Colorado woman in her 30s who hadn’t been seen since she left the Schooner Wharf Bar on William Street in Key West around 2 a.m. Wednesday morning.
“Local agencies continue to investigate the cause of death,” the Coast Guard said in a statement released on Twitter Friday night.
Hammond was with a man on the dinghy who reported her missing after it overturned near Mule Key.
A Coast Guard spokesman did not name the man Friday night, only referring to him as “the reporting source.”
According to her Facebook page, Hammond lives in Denver. A message to her husband’s Facebook page seeking comment was not immediately returned Friday night.
The husband, Ben Fisher, urged his friends in a Facebook post Thursday to pray for his wife.
“She was visiting her dad in the Florida Keys and was on a boat that capsized. She has been missing for 36 hours. Please I need the prayer army right now,” Fisher wrote.
This story will be updated as more information becomes available.
This story was originally published May 13, 2022 at 8:21 PM.
