VENICE, Fla. — The Coast Guard suspended its search Monday night for four boaters who disappeared over the weekend on the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Sarasota County.
The search was suspended "pending new information," the Coast Guard said in a post on X.
The family was given the news directly from the Coast Guard after meeting with them shortly before 8 p.m. 10 Tampa Bay's Angelina Salcedo spoke to them moments after their conversation.
"We’re completely devastated right now. We just left the Coast Guard base in San Cortez," Ruben Mora Jr. said via Zoom.
He's still processing the fact that his dad, Ruben Mora Sr., is still missing and the search to find him won’t continue.
"They’ve searched a mass of the state of Massachusetts is what they’ve searched so far, but when it’s someone you love I just don’t think it's enough, it's not enough. Forty-eight hours is too soon to give up on four individual lives," Ruben Mora Jr. said.
Mora is one of three men who went boating early Saturday morning. Authorities were told the men left around 8 a.m. from Venice and were expected to return in the evening, according to the Venice Police Department. Crews were searching the Gulf from Stump Pass to Longboat Pass.
The boaters are identified as Angel Hernandez Munoz, 38, of North Port; Ruben Mora Sr., 54, of Port Charlotte; Julio Cesar Cordero Briones, 37, of North Port; and Alfonso Vargas Parra, 35, of North Port, police said. Their boat is a 1995, 23-foot white SportCraft with registration No. FL9937HC.
Police say the men's relatives have been notified about the suspension of the search. Mora's sons say the friends left on a fishing trip and they planned on meeting their dad later that night.
"Saturday evening we were supposed to get together, my brother and I with him and hang out. I can’t imagine what he’s going through, or his friends are going through and I just want him back here," Ruben Mora Jr. said before the search was suspended.
An extensive search had been underway since Sunday morning spanning 9 miles off the coast in and from Venice down to Collier County. The family says the Coast Guard believed they found some type of boat about 20 miles south of where the boaters were suspected, but weren’t able to locate it when they circled back.
"There's no debris anywhere. You know, all the guys that were on that boat, they've been fishing since they were kids. They know how to maneuver and be out in the water. We just don't understand that if there was nothing legitimately found yet, how the search is already getting called off. They just started searching yesterday," Raul Mora said.
For a family who has dealt with so much loss recently, losing a little brother a week ago and grandmother three months ago, they're still recovering and now lack closure.
"We're still going through everything, but at least with them being gone we have the closure of knowing that they you know, they've passed and they're no longer here. We don't have that with our father," Ruben Mora Jr. said
The search may be suspended, but they are holding onto the idea Ruben could be alive. They say their gut is telling them he's further South than the area where the Coast Guard has searched.
"I miss him and I was looking forward to hanging out and being together. I just want my dad back," Ruben Mora Jr. said
Mora Jr. says his dad is a "stand-up guy," who loves the water and would do anything to help if other boaters were in a similar situation.
Police said shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office contacted Venice police to check the Marine Park boat ramp for a vehicle and boat trailer that was left behind by the men. After a search, both were found.
Local law enforcement, including the Sarasota and Manatee County sheriff's offices and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, were reportedly searching from the shoreline to about 9 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard is searching areas beyond 9 miles, at the last update Monday afternoon, crews searched more than 4,200 square miles of area.
Weather conditions on the Gulf were not ideal for boating during the weekend given ongoing periods of rain and wind. A small craft advisory had been in effect, with 3-5 foot seas possible, according to the National Weather Service.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Venice Police Department Detective Courtney Zak at 941-486-2444, email czak@venicfl.gov or use radio Channel 16 VHF.