PORTSMOUTH, Va. (AP) - The U.S. Coast Guard said Sunday afternoon it had suspended its search for a missing boater in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Coast Guard announced the search for 63-year-old Christopher Martin Young a day earlier, saying it had commenced after a boat with “signs of recent occupancy" was found beached near Factory Point, Virginia.
Cell phone data indicated the vessel departed Annapolis, Maryland, Friday evening and traveled south, according to a news release.
The Coast Guard and other agencies that contributed aircraft and boats searched an area of approximately 1,310 square miles over the course of 33 hours.
“It is always a difficult decision to suspend a search and rescue case,” Christopher Scraba, the active search suspension authority at the Coast Guard District Five command center, said in a news release. “Our deepest sympathies and condolences go out to the family and friends of Mr. Young during this difficult time.”
A spokesman for the Virginia Marine Police told The Virginian-Pilot the agency would continue to comb the area from Annapolis to Hampton throughout the week.
Young did not make any distress calls, and police are not aware of any hazardous weather conditions while he was operating the boat, the spokesman, Zachary Widgeon, told the newspaper.
