Almost a year after the U.S. Coast Guard called off the search for a Texas family of four whose boat capsized off the coast of south-central Alaska, their vessel and human remains have been recovered, officials announced on Wednesday.
The discovery was made possible after three private Alaskan companies volunteered their services in April, including the use of sonar equipment for underwater searches, according to a statement from the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Earlier this month, they found the missing boat along with human remains in 180 feet (55 meters) of water in Kachemak Bay near Homer, the department said.
Mapped: Kachemak Bay
Divers from the state were then able to recover three sets of remains from the sunken vessel during dives on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The remains have been taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office to perform autopsies and identify them, according to the public safety department. It did not say how long identifying the remains would take.
The missing family from Troy, Texas, includes Mary Maynard, 37, and David Maynard, 42, along with sons Colton, 11, and Brantley, 8, according to the statement.
The search for the family was launched in August after a report came in that a 28-foot (8.5-meter) aluminum boat carrying eight people had begun taking on water, the U.S. Coast Guard said at the time. The Coast Guard notified other ships in the area of the situation, and a boat nearby rescued four people.
The Coast Guard scoured Kachemak Bay and Alaska search and rescue crews tried to use sonar equipment to find the family, according to the state’s public safety department. But they were not successful and by the next evening, the search was suspended.
Christi Wells, who provided a statement on behalf of Mary Maynard’s parents at the time, said the family enjoyed spending time with friends and relatives, and traveling, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Mary Maynard was a traveling nurse and David Maynard stayed at home with the children and had a lawn care business, she said.
