Coast Guard suspends search for missing father and teenage son during shrimping trip

US News

By Jorge Fitz Gibbon

The U.S. Coast Guard has called off its search for a 50-year-old Texas man and his teenage son who went missing off the coast of the Lone Star state while on a shrimping expedition Saturday.

The man and his 15-year-old son – identified respectively as Benedicto Jaramillo and Angel Alejandro Jaramillo by the family on a fundraising page – cast off aboard the boat “My Possum” from Port Lavaca on the Gulf Coast around 5 a.m. Saturday and we had to return around 10:30 a.m.

Worried about stormy weather Saturday morning, relatives reported them missing shortly before 11:30 a.m., triggering a search by a Coast Guard flotilla and local agencies that was ultimately suspended at 7:55 a.m. Sunday, the Coast Guard said. in a press release.

“Every time we send out our rescue teams, it is with the fervent hope that we can bring everyone home safely,” Homar Barrera of Guard Sector Corpus Christi said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, after considering all relevant factors, we have made the difficult decision to suspend our search today,” Barrera added.

The two missing were shrimpers, with the elder Jaramillo the sole breadwinner for his family, according to the GoFundMe campaign, which asked for donations to offset the costs of “searching and recovering the vessel.”

The Coast Guard said it searched about 77 miles of ocean for 21 hours for their boat, issuing an urgent message and deploying guard helicopters and several boats, including a fireboat.

Rescue teams from Calhoun County joined the search efforts, along with teams from the Texas Park & ​​Wildlife Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Coast Guard said.

Authorities said the missing father was a deckhand on “My Possum.”