HAMPTON, N.H. — The United States Coast Guard has suspended its search for the last of four boaters who left Hampton, New Hampshire, Wednesday and never returned.
Jia Fu Zheng, 38, Daxiao Lin, 43, and Jaime Liu, 42, of Litchfield, New Hampshire, were recovered unresponsive Thursday afternoon and taken to the Coast Guard station in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where they were pronounced dead, according to an updated release Friday from the Coast Guard.
Zheng and Lin are residents of Quincy, Massachusetts, and Liu is a Litchfield, New Hampshire, resident, the release stated.
Bin "Michael" Cai remains missing. The Coast Guard said it suspended its search for Cai at 10:20 a.m. Friday after covering more than 1,567 square nautical miles in 27 hours.
“The decision to suspend a search and rescue case is one of the most difficult decisions I must make, but we want the public and especially Mr. Cai's family that we did everything in our power to find them," Capt. Amy Florentino, commander of Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, said in the release. "The water temperature in New England at this time of the year dramatically reduces the survivability rate for anyone that enters the water, and we urge all boaters to keep the air and water temperatures in mind when planning their voyages this spring.”
The four boaters left Hampton, New Hampshire, around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday in a 17-foot boat, according to the Coast Guard. Their reported destination was fishing grounds near Jeffreys Ledge, about 50 miles offshore, and they were due back by sunset, officials said.
A Coast Guard aircraft found the boat Thursday about 7 miles northeast of Cape Ann, a Massachusetts peninsula before any of the boaters had been located.
The Coast Guard said it would be conducting an investigation.
Search crews included:
- Coast Guard Station Gloucester 47-foot motor life boat
- Coast Guard Station Merrimack River, 47-foot motor life boat
- Coast Guard Station Portsmouth Harbor 47-foot motor life boat
- Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, MH-60 Jayhawk
- Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod, HC-144 Ocean Sentry fixed-wing
- Coast Guard Cutter William Chadwick (WPC-1150)
- Coast Guard Cutter Sitkinak (WPB-1329)
The Coast Guard asks that anyone who have information contact Sector Northern New England at 207-767-0303.
