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

BODEGA BAY, California — 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 20-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 said Officer Levi Read.

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 wearing a vest, was interviewed by emergency responders and told them the boat capsized, Deputy Rob Dillion, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, told the Press Democrat newspaper.

Hours after the boy was found, searchers found 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 left Bodega Bay at 3 p.m. 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 at 7 p.m., Read said.

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 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 1,300 square miles (2,100 square kilometers). he said.

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

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