VALDOSTA, Ga. - Family members struggled to keep their hopes alive Wednesday after the boat of four south Georgia residents was found in the Gulf of Mexico, four days after they disappeared at sea.
The Coast Guard "told us the life jackets were gone. They could have gotten out," said Beatrice Folsom of Hahira, grandmother of one of the missing.
"I guess when you love someone you always have hope," Folsom told the Valdosta Daily Times.
Folsom's granddaughter, Amanda Player, 20, and her boyfriend, Matthew Hutchinson, 24, both of Valdosta, left the Keaton Beach Marina on the Florida coast on a fishing trip about 11 a.m. Saturday, along with Jeremiah Griffin, 24, of Hahira and Dominic Barros, 37, of Dixie.
The Coast Guard began searching Saturday night after they did not return as scheduled and the calm of their departure was replaced by seas reaching 6 to 8 feet.
Hutchinson's 20-foot Seacraft boat was discovered about 51 miles south of Keaton Beach about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, by another boater, Petty Officer Danielle DeMarino of the Coast Guard's West Florida Regional Office said.
Keaton Beach is about 70 miles southeast of Tallahassee.
DeMarino said the search has included C-130 airplanes and HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters from the Coast Guard Station in Yankeetown, two Coast Guard Cutters and vessels and aircraft from the Air Force and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Since Sunday, Folsom and her 85-year-old mother have waited near the marina at a condominium. Player is the oldest granddaughter of five grandchildren. Folsom said she was overwhelmed by the kindness and support the family was receiving.
"I can't believe at 4 a.m. (Wednesday) morning, 80 people were willing to get up, put off a day's work and come here to go out and search," she said. "All of us appreciate the people who have come with food from pots of soup and chili to homemade cakes."
Folsom planned to go out on the search today with her son-in-law, Roger Dodd, an attorney from Valdosta.
