Search ends for two missing boaters

One body was found, but a Coast Guard sweep finds no trace of two other Homosassa men.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 2, 2000

HOMOSASSA -- The Coast Guard has called off its search for two fishermen missing in the Gulf of Mexico since their boat capsized Thursday.

"We have pretty much done everything we could, and we couldn't find anybody else," Lt. Larry Mosburg said Sunday.

Divers retrieved the body of one man, Julius Abrams, 60, of 6929 S Spartan Ave. in Homosassa, during their search Friday evening.

Abrams was found near the capsized boat, about 17 miles southwest of Hernando Beach.

But the search turned up nothing of the other two fishermen, Thomas Richardson, 46, of 4341 S Legend Drive and his brother-in-law, Bruce Fischer, 57, of 4325 S Legend Drive, both of Homosassa.

The Coast Guard deployed three helicopters, an HC-130 airplane, a 27-foot boat and a 110-foot ship in about 10 search patterns. By 9:27 p.m. Saturday, authorities decided there was nothing more they could do, Mosburg said.

"If something else came up that was found pertaining to that case, we would go out and do another search," he said.

JoAnne Richardson and Faye Fischer, the wives of the missing fishermen, were too distraught Sunday to comment, a relative said.

The three men pushed off from the Homosassa River at 6 a.m. Thursday on a recreational fishing trip aboard the 22-foot open fishing boat Hard Times, owned by Richardson and Fischer.

The trip was supposed to be for a half-day, and when the men had not returned by 10 p.m. Thursday, JoAnne Richardson called the Coast Guard to report them missing.

The water conditions were rough Thursday, with up to 8-foot swells, Petty Officer Harry Craft said.

The waters remained choppy Friday and Saturday with 6- to 8-foot swells, he said, making the search more difficult.

"If we would have found one little thing, we would continue to search," Craft said. "But when we use all of our resources and we don't find anything, we have to call it off."

- Information from Times files was used in this report.

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