The body was seen in the water near Anclote Key. A family member identified the 26-year-old man Saturday night.
By JAMIE JONES
Published August 3, 2003
They've been living somewhere between hope and grief, doing the only thing they could do: search.
In the water. On the islands. Through the mangroves.
Looking for Anthony Stevens.
He had been lost at sea since Wednesday evening, when the 22-foot Mako he was traveling in slammed into a channel marker near Anclote Key.
About 3:45 p.m. Saturday, a boater saw the body of a man floating in the water near Anclote Key.
The Coast Guard took the body to shore, and investigators tried to determine whether it was Stevens.
Meanwhile, his family waited.
"We're hanging in there," said Stevens' father, Donald. "We're still in limbo."
By 8 p.m., they knew: It was Stevens, a 26-year-old who grew up in Palm Harbor, loved the outdoors and rooted for his favorite team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Inside a house in Tarpon Springs, the man who owned the boat, Randall Peacock, 42, was shaken, distraught and depressed. His head was swollen and his ears ached - injuries from the accident.
Peacock has told investigators that Stevens was driving the boat as they traveled toward the mouth of the Anclote River.
When they hit the marker, Peacock was thrown to the front and knocked unconscious, according to his wife, Shannon. He awakened bloody and confused, and did not see Stevens.
He dived overboard, but could not find his friend, Shannon Peacock said. He radioed for help.
Shannon Peacock said on Saturday evening that she had not yet told her husband the news.
"I can't get him to eat," she said. "He's in a deep depression."
The Peacocks own Peacock's Professional Cleaning, which cleans newly built houses, and Stevens has worked for the couple during the past three years.
The couple visited Stevens' family on Friday, and they tried to comfort Peacock.
"They were really good to my husband," Shannon Peacock said. "They told him they know it was an accident, that they don't blame him for anything. It's just so hard for him."
Since Stevens disappeared, the Coast Guard, sheriff's deputies and scores of friends have been searching the Gulf of Mexico, about 11 to 14 feet deep around channel marker No. 38, where the accident occurred.
The Coast Guard suspended its search Thursday evening, but friends continued. On Saturday, Stevens' two brothers spent hours on the water.
Initially, officers were not certain that the body was Stevens because his clothing description did not match the man in the water.
But on Saturday night, a family member identified Stevens, said Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Morse said his officers, along with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, continue investigating the crash. They will try to determine precisely what happened and whether to file criminal charges, Morse said.
Stevens' body was turned over to the Medical Examiner's Office, which will determine the cause of death.
