A Texas family of four is still missing after their boat capsized and sank off the coast of Alaska on Saturday while they were on a family vacation. The U.S. Coast Guard searched throughout the weekend for the family but suspended its search mission on Sunday evening after finding no sign of the missing four.
A relative identified the victims as Mary and David Maynard and their two sons, 11-year-old Colton and seven-year-old Brantley, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The family is from Troy, a small town of 2,000 residents nestled halfway between Austin and Dallas.
The Maynards were on a family trip to Alaska when they took a 28-foot aluminum boat out on the water off the coast of Homer with four other people. The vessel began to take on water around 7 p.m., the U.S. Coast Guard told the Anchorage Daily News.
The family sent a distress signal to the coast guard, who alerted nearby vessels to the boat’s location. A boat called the Salty Sea responded and rescued four unharmed people from a life raft.
The people rescued were the four others that the Maynards were boating with that day. Reports did not indicate why the Maynards were not on the life raft with the other individuals. The four people rescued have not been identified publicly.
U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Travis Magee told The Associated Press he did not have information on the people who were rescued, nor did he have additional information on the boat that sank or what may have led to it capsizing.
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The coast guard searched the area where the boat sank, which was roughly 25 kilometres west of the Homer Spit. A coast guard helicopter, plane and three boats were used in the search, in addition to help from Good Samaritans and the Alaska Wildlife Troopers.
At the time the Maynards’ boat sank, waves in the area were about half a metre tall with wind speeds less than five knots. However, the water temperature was just 10 C, KCEN-TV reported.
According to the National Water Safety Congress, it can take between two and 10 hours for a person to die of hypothermia if submerged in water that is 10 C. However, there are many factors at play that can increase mortality when a person is stranded in cold water. Shock, exhaustion and gradual drowning from water inhalation can all be deadly before hypothermia sets in.
The coast guard search for the family continued throughout the day on Sunday but the mission was called off around 6 p.m. A number of elements are considered before the coast guard suspends rescue missions, including the likelihood of survival and how much area has been covered, KCEN-TV reported.
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Despite the official search being called off, relatives of the Maynards are still hoping to bring them home.
A GoFundMe page, which has so far raised over US$10,000, states that the parents of Mary Maynard are in Alaska searching for the family.
“This family is going through a lot right now,” the campaign page reads. “The Maynard’s left a huge imprint on many people, from the laughter they brought to us, (to) the love and family-oriented connection they provided.”
Mary Maynard, 37, is a travelling nurse while her husband David Maynard, 42, is a stay-at-home dad with a lawn care business. The family are avid travellers, according to Christi Wells, who spoke on behalf of Mary Maynard’s parents.
Their sons Colton and Brantley play soccer and baseball.
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