The story of a family missing at sea is making headlines in the UK. Tuesday's Daily Mail headline read, "Identities of two adults and two children who called the Coast Guard from a sinking boat off the San Francisco coast still a mystery,"
Click here for an updates story: The Coast Guard suspended the active search on Tuesday.
But could the story of a family lost at sea be just that, a story? Is there no family missing at sea. Could the story be a hoax?
The Coast Guard has been searching since Monday for the missing family of four who were reported being in a sinking sailboat off the Northern California coast late Sunday afternoon.
The Coast Guard told the Examiner.com that they have gotten no reports of anyone missing. The Coast Guard has dealt with a number of false distress calls over the past few years. When asked by the Examiner.com on Monday afternoon whether the report of missing family at sea could be a hoax, Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Barry Bena said that the Coast Guard is taking the report seriously.
“We are not going down that road right now,” Bena said reiterating that they are treating the call as a legitimate distress call and not a hoax.
The alleged family lost at sea is a husband and wife along with two young children on board when it sent a radio distress call. The husband said one of the children was his son, the other the son's cousin. The husband told the Coast Guard his sailboat was sinking and that the family was fashioning a makeshift raft from a cooler and life ring.
The man sent a series of broken distress calls and was unable to say exactly where his family's boat was. The Coast Guard says the missing family were apparently forced to abandon the boat at sea.
The search for the missing family is being concentrated in the sea along the Northern California Coast from San Mateo County to Monterey County. Monterey is about two hours south of San Francisco.
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