HOUSTON – Two of the three people located by the Coast Guard Monday afternoon were declared deceased this morning by the Galveston County Medical Examiners Office. The 13-year-old boy who was rescued remains in the hospital as the the search continues for the fourth person who went missing Sunday morning 10 miles off the Galveston coast.
Coast Guard Air Station Houston launched a helicopter this morning at first-light to resume the search.
Late Monday afternoon, one of the rescue helicopters spotted three of the missing four people a little over ten miles south of Jamaica Beach in Galveston. The 13-year-old was rushed to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston by the helicopter. Coast Guard boats picked the other two men from the water and took them back to the Coast Guard base in Galveston.
The 13-year-old boy was able to tell the rescue helicopter crew that the fourth person began swimming towards a nearby oil rig Sunday night.
Melquisedec Acevedo, Miguel Castano, Jose Vasquez and Acevedo’s 13-year-old son went missing Sunday morning after reporting that their boat was sinking. The Coast Guard searched through-out the night Sunday and all day Monday using rescue helicopters from Coast Guard Air Station Houston, rescue boats from Coast Guard Station Galveston, the patrol boats Skipjack and Manta, an HU-25 Falcon jet from Coast Guard Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, and a C-130 Hercules aircraft from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Fla.
The three families involved will be identifying the bodies of the deceased.
