Daytona Beach, FL – The massive search for 2 missing Florida teenagers will be suspended by Friday night unless they’re found first.
That’s the word from the United States Coast Guard following a press conference in Miami on Friday.
Captain Mark Fedor – chief of response for the 7th Coast Guard district – says the USCG searched nearly 50,000 square nautical miles since 14-year-olds Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen of Jupiter went missing last Friday.
“We are searching today [Friday during the day],” Fedor added. “However, we have made a decision that we will suspend at sunset [Friday].”
A suspension means that the USCG is leaving open the option of ramping up the search effort for the boys in the future if new information comes to light.
There’s been no sight of the 14-year-old boys since they bought around $110 worth of fuel in the Jupiter area around 1:30pm last Friday.
Fedor expressed his condolences to the boys’ families and said this was a hard search for many of the USCG personnel because many of them have children around the same age.
“I have a 14-year-old and a 13-year-old,” Fedor noted. “So the decision to suspend was excruciating and gut-wrenching for me personally.”
Earlier in the week, Fedor said it was likely that the boys couldn’t survive in the open sea for longer than 5 days, assuming they went into the water on Sunday. That’s the day their 19-foot fishing boat was found overturned nearly 70 miles offshore of Ponce Inlet.
Because of the uncertainty of when they went in the water, the USCG decided to extend the search a few days longer than that, according to Fedor.
“We also took into account their age and their combined will to live,” Fedor noted. “We never discount that.”
Fedor also said that even though the intense search effort hasn’t borne fruit so far and wasn’t likely to at this point, he hoped that the boys’ families will take comfort at some point in the future that hundreds of people gave all they had to find the boys.
Assets with the Royal Bahamian Navy joined the US Navy and US Air Force during the search, as did authorities stretching from Jupiter to Charleston, South Carolina. That includes elements of the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and Volusia County Beach Safety.
Fedor says an examination of the boat showed that the boys might have been tinkering with the engine after going out to sea, but that it was impossible to know for sure if engine problems caused the boat to capsize.
A $100,000 reward has been offered for their safe return by former football great Joe Namath, who is a neighbor of the boys.
Candlelight vigils have been held throughout the state by those praying for the boys’ safe return, including Wednesday night at the Daytona Beach Bandshell.
Authorities are asking anyone who may spot the boys or those items to call USCG at 561-262-9292.
The video above of the actual boat is courtesy of USCG.
The flyer below was released to the media on Monday.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.