Coast Guard plans to suspend search for Florida teens

The U.S. Coast Guard will end its search Friday at sunset for a pair of 14-year-old boys missing for a week off the coast of Florida.

"We have made a decision that we will suspend at sunset tonight," said Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor, chief of response for the Coast Guard 7th District in Miami. "The decision to suspend was excruciating and gut-wrenching for me personally," he said, as the father of 14- and 13-year-old children.

He said the search could be reopened with new information. The parents of the boys were notified Wednesday that the search would be suspended, but the information wasn't released publicly at that time.

"If we have any new information that comes to light in the weeks and months ahead, we will reopen the case," Fedor said. "We believe we have reached a limit for our search-and-rescue efforts."

Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen were last seen July 24 about 1:30 p.m. near Jupiter, Fla., while buying $110 worth of fuel for their fishing boat. The boys were reported missing about 5 p.m.

On July 26, a Coast Guard crew aboard an HC-130 plane found the boys' white, 19-foot vessel capsized about 77 miles east of Daytona Beach, Fla. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter was sent to the scene, and a rescue swimmer was lowered to the boat to confirm the registration.

The boat's engine cover was missing and one life jacket was on board, but the boat wasn't damaged, Coast Guard officials said later.

The boys routinely fish near Jupiter. Despite initial reports on social media that the boys might have tried to sail to the Bahamas, they didn't bring supplies to last for several days, according to the Coast Guard.

"There is currently no federal regulations for an age limit on people to go to sea," Fedor said. "We highly recommend all mariners utilize" electronic beacons to signal their position, in case of an emergency at sea.

The search featured Coast Guard C-130 and HC-144 planes, cutters Paul Clark and Sawfish, two U.S. Customs and Border Protection planes and Navy destroyer USS Carney. The search spanned about 66,000 square miles – about the size of Florida – stretching from Jupiter, Fla., to Cape Hatteras, N.C.

The search was extended because of factors such as uncertainty about when the boys might have gone into the water, their age and health and their will to survive, Fedor said.

"This was a true all-hands-on-deck effort," Fedor said.

The effort prompted NFL Hall of Famer Joe Namath, a neighbor of one of the boys, to offer a $100,000 reward for information to help the search.