James “Denny” Hurst’s daughter sent him a worried text message a few hours before Hurricane Ian destroyed a small marina in Fort Myers Beach.
Shannon Vaughan wrote, “It’s moved south” after hearing the weather forecast on the news. “Would you please get off that boat?”
Hurst, who uses a walker and has a portable oxygen tank, texted back, “I am not and can’t leave my boat right now.”
The 72-year-old didn’t move. Since then, Vaughan’s calls and texts to her dad have been ignored.
I’m getting panic attacks. I keep crying. I’m angry. “I’m everything,” said Vaughan. “I can’t stand not knowing.”
More than three weeks after Ian crashed on the beach, at least five people, including Hurst, are still missing in Florida, according to police.
NBC News has counted that more than 135 people are dead, and their families have started to hold funerals. But the families and friends of those who are still missing are stuck in limbo. They can’t start to mourn a loss that hasn’t been confirmed, and it’s looking less and less likely that they’ll ever see their loved ones again.
“We have accepted the fact that he is, for all intents and purposes, dead,” said Vaughan of Rancho Mirage, California. But just find the dead person. “Find the boat, and you’ll find the body.
Ilonka Knes, who is 82 years old, is one of three people missing in Lee County. Officials say that her husband drowned in the storm and was found dead near their home in Fort Myers Beach.
“She would not have abandoned him. He would not have given up on her. Amy Keenum, a family friend who lives in Fort Myers, said, “If they were going out, they were going together.” I have a lot of questions. Has she washed away? Where is she on the island? It’s terrible.
People who want to know what happened to their missing loved ones have been posting about them on social media. In between posts about lost keys and a stolen bike in a Facebook group called “Key West Lost, Found, and Stolen,” a woman named Betsy Morales Soto asked for help finding her mother and stepfather, Omar Millet Torres.
The post said, “Looking for a ship called Salty Mermaid.” “If you have any news or information, please get in touch with me right away.”
The last time anyone heard from the Monroe County couple was on September 27, the night before the hurricane, when Millet Torres sent a text to his mother saying, “Please pray for us.”
His older sister, Lorraine Millet, said, “She was already asleep.” “She tried to reach them when she woke up. But no communication. “
The couple told the U.S. Coast Guard that night that their boat’s anchor line had broken and that the boat was drifting. Two people and their dog were on a boat near Wisteria Island in the Lower Keys.
The sheriff’s office still counts Morales, 47, and Torres, 44, as missing, but the Coast Guard stopped looking for them on October 4.
The search and rescue mission coordinator for Sector Key West, Lt. Cmdr. Elizabeth Tatum, said in a statement, “The decision to stop a search is never easy and is only made after careful consideration of all the facts.”
The sheriff’s office said that it is not looking for the couple right now. But the case is still open, it said, and if there was proof of where they were, it would look into it more.
Since then, the family has hired its own private detective.
