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Active search for missing US citizen suspended

Photo Credit: VISAR

The active search for the 71-year-old US citizen who went missing while swimming in BVI waters nearly two weeks ago has been suspended.

Information Officer for the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force (RVIPF) Diane Drayton said the active search discontinued on Tuesday, April 16.

The RVIPF will, however, conduct periodic patrols off Cooper Island and its surrounding areas where the American, Patrick William McLellan, went missing.

Police have had conduct of the search since it was handed over to them by the Virgin Islands Search and Rescue (VISAR) after days of extensive searching.

According to Rescue Coordinator at VISAR, Phil Aspinall, a team of 15 professionals first started their search on the evening of Saturday, April 6 around 4 pm after receiving reports of the disappearance.

“We launched the Tortola boat, the Virgin Gorda boat, the police marine boat and a dive boat from Hodges Creek. He (McLellan) had already been missing roughly two hours when we got the call,” Aspinall said.

“On Sunday, we went back out from 7:30 am until 12 again with the same four boats but also using technology. We started using drones so we had two drones to give us better coverage,” the VISAR representative had further told BVI News.

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5 Comments

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  1. true says:

    Tiger Sharks stay in their own area, there are 2 oe even 3 massive 12ft+ Tiger sharks that patrol that area of water(think the photos of the whale carcass being eaten) we have seen them and they haven’t moved. The body is gone, drowned and then taken by the sea.

    Sorry for the loss to his family he’s gone.

    • nah says:

      bull sharks

    • Questions says:

      are, given the frequency of these kinds of episodes occurring in this neck of the world, was there foul play involved in that man;s disappearance, and, can it be ascertained that there was or was not, and for what reasons?

      No one should be buying bull shark story, it is perhaps nothing but a smoke screen.

      Like 5
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  2. Hmmmm says:

    Oh Lord Sharks

    Like 2
    Dislike 1
  3. Reply says:

    Could this maybe be a case of someone Fak— their death???

    Like 6
    Dislike 6

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