Families calls off private search for missing teens

The Coast Guard spent the previous week looking for the 14-year-olds who went missing on a fishing trip July 24.

Even if the promise of never ceasing to look for them remains intact, they have cancelled the private search for them.

However, on Sunday, August 9, a spokesman talked to NBC Miami, saying: “Absent new information, continuing the search is not practical” and that the boys’ families “faced the harsh reality of no new, credible evidence or clues to guide the search”.

“We love our boys and want them home”, read a joint statement by each of the teenager’s families.

But after checking about 50,000 nautical square miles, the Coast Guard called off its search July 31 – an “excruciating and gut-wrenching” decision, Capt. Mark Fedor said.

Off Savanna, Ga., two life jackets and a boat cushion were found – but couldn’t be linked to the boys.

The families say that their hopes have now become their prayers as they wait for developments.

On Sunday, the teens’ dinghy appeared to be found capsized about 70 a good distance north of Ponce er Leon Inlet, Florida.

“The outpouring of community support for our families in our time of need has been overwhelming”, according to the families’ statement. A crowdfunding campaign for the boys raised almost $480,000, and they used the money to pay for a private search that ran through Saturday.

Joe Cavaretta/AP Former Jets quarterback Joe Namath walks with Perry Cohen’s step-father, Nick Korniloff, along the beach at Coral Cove Park in Jupiter, Fla., on July 27. According to the boys’ parents they were very good swimmers and knew how to handle a boat even when the wind was rough.

The families of two 14-year-old Tequesta, Fla., boys lost at sea have ended their desperate two-week search off the Atlantic coast.