Coast Guard suspends search for missing father and son near Port Lavaca | Local News

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search Sunday for a missing father and son off the coast of Magnolia Beach.

“Every time we send our rescue teams, it is with the fervent hope that we can bring everyone home safely,” Homar Barrera said in a press release. “Unfortunately, after considering all relevant factors, we have made the difficult decision to suspend our search today.”

Barrera is a search and rescue mission coordinator with Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi.

After 9 p.m., the Coast Guard suspended its search for the father and son at 7:55 a.m. Sunday. Coast Guard crews searched approximately 77 square miles for them.

While the Coast Guard suspended its search, a local nonprofit group called Hunter Hadley's Quest was still searching for the father and son. Hunter Hadley's Quest is a community emergency response team.

On Saturday, the Coast Guard received a call about a long-awaited boat near Port Lavaca. Sunday evening, Father Benedicto Jaramillo, 50, and his son, Angel Alejandro Jaramillo, 15, both of Bloomington, were missing.

Priscilla Jaramillo, mother and wife of the father and son, reported them missing when a 40-foot shrimp boat named My Possum was long overdue. The father and son had left at 5 a.m. to fish for shrimp off Magnolia Beach, according to a press release issued Saturday by the Coast Guard. They were supposed to return around 10:30 a.m.

Benedicto is approximately 6 feet tall and weighs 160 to 180 pounds. Both father and son were probably wearing green waders.

After the Coast Guard was called, an urgent maritime information broadcast was broadcast. An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi and a small 29-foot response boat from Coast Guard Station Port O'Connor were dispatched.

A fire crew arrived and reported a capsized vessel that matched the description of the shrimp boat in the Matagorda Ship Channel off Magnolia Beach.

Several agencies participated in the search, including searchers from Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi, Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi, Calhoun County Sheriff's Office, Department of Parks and Wildlife of Texas and the Texas Department of Public Safety.