Second Body Found in Search for 4 Family Members Missing off Florida Coast

A family of four disappeared Sunday, with their boat amid 6-foot waves.

ByABC News
June 23, 2016, 2:16 PM

— -- A second body was recovered today as the Coast Guard continued searching for four family members who disappeared Sunday on their sailboat off the western coast of Florida.

The first body, who the grieving family said is 17-year-old Becca Lynn, was found Wednesday in the search area in the Gulf of Mexico. The two bodies found were four miles away from each other, but neither has been officially identified by the Coast Guard.

A sailboat mast was also recovered today, 101 miles offshore from Fort Myers, Florida -- the family's planned destination.

A bucket with a wallet and a GPS device was found 5 miles from the first body, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard released this photo, taken June 18, 2016, of the Kimberly family on their boat, one day before the family went missing.
@USCGSoutheast/Twitter

The Coast Guard began searching Tuesday for Ace Kimberly and his teenage children — Becca Lynn, Donald and Roger — after a concerned relative contacted authorities.

Kimberly's brother told the Coast Guard that the four family members had at least seven life jackets on their 29-foot sailboat, on which they live. They were towing two kayaks when they left Sarasota, Florida, at 7 a.m. Sunday, en route to Fort Myers for boat repairs.

At about 3 p.m. Sunday, the now-missing man called his brother to say the boat was in 6-foot seas near Englewood, 30 miles from Sarasota, and the family was trying to survive.

Items — including six life jackets, two kayaks and a flare — believed to belong to the family have been found during the search.

At about 2:30 a.m. today, helicopter and boat crews saw something in the search area that looked like a flare rising into the air for three seconds. But when the area was further searched, no flare was found, the Coast Guard said today.

"We still have hope," a Coast Guard official said today, calling it a "dire" situation, but adding, "We want to get out there and save them."

The father has full custody of the children and is separated from their mother, said her sister, Sadie Dilts. She told ABC News on Wednesday that her sister lives in Indiana and was on her way to Florida.