The U.S. Coast Guard has called off the search for a 50-year-old man and his teenage son who went missing Saturday off the Texas coast while out shrimping.
The man and his 15-year-old son, identified by the family on a fundraising page as Benedict Jaramillo and Angel Alejandro Jaramillo, respectively, set sail aboard the My Possum from Port Lavaca on the Gulf Coast at about 5 a.m. Saturday and were scheduled to return about 10:30 a.m.
Relatives, concerned by Saturday morning’s storm, reported him missing just before 11:30 a.m., and a search was launched by a convoy of boats from the Coast Guard and local agencies, but was ultimately called off at 7:55 a.m. Sunday. the Coast Guard said in a press release..
“Any time we send out a rescue team it is with high hopes that we can get everyone home safely,” Homer Barrera of the National Guard’s Corpus Christi District said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, after considering all relevant factors, we have made the difficult decision today to suspend the search,” Varela added.
The missing men were shrimp fishermen, and Jaramillo’s only job was to support his family, according to a GoFundMe campaign that is seeking donations to help cover the costs of “searching and recovering the boat.”
The Coast Guard said it had searched an area of about 77 miles for 21 hours, issued an emergency broadcast and dispatched multiple vessels, including a security helicopter and a fire boat.
According to the Coast Guard, rescue teams from Calhoun County, as well as teams from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, also joined the search effort.
Authorities say the missing father was a deckhand on the My Possum.
