Search for missing man suspended after deadly boat accident off Staten Island
STAPLETON HEIGHTS, Staten Island (WABC) -- Crews suspended their search Monday for a missing boater the day after a Staten Island boat took on water and overturned in Ambrose Channel.
Three people were killed and two others were injured, including one critically in the accident on Sunday.
On Monday evening, the Coast Guard announced that they suspended their search for 52-year-old Vernon Glasford, of the Bronx, leaving the family of the father and grandfather from the Bronx to assume the worst.
"He wouldn't miss work. He would be here, if he could be here. So, something is wrong," said Glasford's sister Jenel Bobb said.
Glasford even invited Bobb to go fishing, an activity that he loved the most. She decided to pass, but one of their brothers initially said yes.
"He said he was going to go with him," Bobb said. "But for some strange reason he changed his mind."
The boat overturned around noon Sunday in the channel between Staten Island, Sandy Hook, New Jersey and the Rockaway Peninsula. The boat was not close to shore at the time.
Crews searched a combined total of approximately 842 square miles over the course of 30 hours in an attempt to find Glasford, using crews aboard helicopters, planes, ships and small boats.
"The decision to suspend a search is always difficult. Though our active search has ended, our support and sympathy remain with all those impacted by this tragic incident," said Coast Guard Sector New York Commander Capt. Jonathan Andrechik.
Several of Glasford's family members live in the same building in the Bronx where they gathered Monday night.
Neighbor Eva Ruiz was a friend of Glasford for 35 years.
"His presence was always cheerful, and that's one blessing that we all have and take with us," Ruiz said.
As for the other victims, 50-year-old Javier Adames, a married father of three, was identified as one of three men who died.
His loved ones described him as an experienced boater and a generous person.
"Once things like this happen, all I'm thinking about is how good he is, there's not one bad quality about him that I can think about," said his daughter Alisha Adames.
One of the two men still hospitalized, named Enrique, is undergoing testing at Staten Island University Hospital, with his sister by his side.
Enrique said Adames was trying to help everyone else out when the boat started taking on water.
A cousin of another one of the victims, Francis Marmolos, who was in his 30s, says he loved boating and fishing.
"It was a little windy but nothing it seemed OK, at 10:45 they stopped talking, then 11, that's it gone and then we heard the news," said Miguel Mendez.
The group of friends set sail on Sunday morning for an early fishing trip with weather being the most favorable it had been in weeks.
The water of the lower New York Bay is still very cold, and being in the water could put you at risk for hypothermia.
The U.S. Coast Guard says the vessel that sank was a 30-foot-long Grady White speed boat.
Separately, it was determined that a body that washed up on a beach near the Verrazano Bridge on Monday afternoon was not connected to the boat incident.
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