Search Ends For 2 Men Missing Near Pass-A-Grille

ST. PETE BEACH, FL — The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Thursday night for two men who went missing near the entrance to the Pass-a-Grille channel on Tuesday.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Jie Luo and Andrew Dillman," said Capt. Holly Najarian, Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg commander. "Suspending a search is the most difficult decision I have to make in my position, and despite our best efforts, we were unable to reunite Andrew and Jie with their families."

The search began for Dillman, 27, of New York and Luo, 21, of China shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday when watch standers at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg received a report from the captain of a 71-foot yacht that the men had been pulled away from the boat in rough waters. The coast guard’s search officially ended at 7:41 p.m. March 16 after more than 1,577 square miles had been covered during 39 separate searches, the agency reported.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, 15 students from Colorado State University were on board the yacht, named the Jaguar, at the time of the men's disappearance. The boat was chartered for a four-hour cruise, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a Wednesday afternoon press conference.

Charter Capt. Todd Davis made the decision not to take the boat out into open Gulf of Mexico waters because of hazardous conditions. He anchored the vessel in the channel area instead, Gualtieri said. At that point, five male students decided to go swimming off the side of the boat while it was anchored. Davis told authorities he advised the men not to go because it was too rough.

The five, however, decided to jump off and swim back to the vessel several times. On the third jump, one of the men had trouble swimming back.

“Only four were able to swim back to the vessel,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Wednesday morning email to media. As the charter boat’s captain tried to help four of the swimmers back onto the vessel, a charter mate, Dillman, jumped into the water to help Luo, the sheriff’s office said.

Davis told authorities he pulled anchor and tried to rescue the men. The current, however, pulled them away. An attempt to throw flotation devices out to the two, resulted in the wind pulling those devices in the other direction, Gualtieri said.

"The last anybody saw them, they were being pulled out into the Gulf," the sheriff said.

The incident remains under investigation. No further information is available at this time.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard