Families of 4 missing boaters call for Coast Guard to continue search: 'We just can't give up'
VENICE, Fla. - The U.S. Coast Guard suspended the search for four men who left the Marina Park Boat Ramp in Venice Saturday morning to go boating. But, the families of the boaters aren't giving up hope and are calling for the search to continue.
"We just can’t give up. They’re still alive. They’re still out there. We just want to bring them home. We want them safe," said Danna Corona, the step daughter of one of the victims, Angel Hernandez Munoz.
Since the four boaters went missing, crews with multiple agencies searched 60 hours, covering more than 10,000 nautical square miles. But, the families believe they are still alive and are asking other to keep an eye out.
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Coast Guard crews were searching for the missing Sportscraft boat as well as the occupants – Alfonso Vargas Parra, Angel Hernandez Munoz, Julio Cesar Cordero Briones and Ruben Mora Senior.
"It’s just hard to wrap your head around, because you don’t know where they’re at. You don’t know how they’re doing," said Corona.
She said the boat belonged to her stepfather, Hernandez Munoz. It was the second time he had taken out the boat, but he had owned a previous one.
Hernandez Munoz and his three friends launched the boat Saturdayat around 8 a.m.
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"It’s like we are living a nightmare, it doesn’t seem real to me or my family," said Ruben Mora Jr., one of the family members of the victims.
With each minute that passes the families of the four men said it is time that is slipping away from the hope of finding their loved ones.
"To the Coast Guard and everyone else, it might just be an accident or four men that got lost at sea, but to us, that’s our family, that’s our world. It means a lot more to us, and we are just running out of time," said Mora Jr.
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