Search for 4 missing boaters in California suspended after crews find 1 child dead and 1 alive

BODEGA BAY, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended a massive search for four boaters who went missing in Northern California after their boat capsized over the weekend when search crews found an 11-year-old boy alive and recovered the body of a teenager, officials said Monday.

Crews began searching by land, sea and air Saturday evening after the Coast Guard received a report that a 21-foot boat carrying three adults and three children had failed to return to shore in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer Levi Read said.

On Sunday, search crews found the 11-year-old boy alive along South Salmon Creek Beach, north of Bodega Bay, who was taken to a hospital and stabilized. The boy, who was found wearing a vest, was interviewed by first responders and told them the boat capsized, Deputy Rob Dillion, a spokesman with the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office told the Press Democrat newspaper.

Hours after the boy was found, searchers located the body of a teenager in the water, Read said.

Five members of a family and a friend were on a blue and white Bayliner that set out from Bodega Bay at 3 p.m. on Saturday, the first day of the recreational Dungeness crab season. The group from Corning, a city about 170 miles (273 kilometers) north of San Francisco, was fishing for crab and was expected to return to shore by 7 p.m., Read said.

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When they didn’t show up, a family member contacted the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, which in turn contacted the Coast Guard, he said.

The search effort involving crews from eight local, state and federal agencies was suspended Sunday evening but could resume if new information emerges that could help officials narrow the search, which covered more than 2,100 square miles, he said.

“The decision to suspend a search is always difficult to make and never done lightly,” said U.S. Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Michael L. Zapawa, who also coordinated the search and rescue, said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the missing boaters during this incredibly difficult time.”