CRESCENT BEACH, Fla. — Over a month after the Carol Ann disappeared off the coast of Brunswick, the discovery of debris from the boat and a possible sighting of a life raft has the families of three missing boaters clinging to hope.
Dalton Conway, Caleb Wilkinson and Tyler Barlow set off on a fishing trip 80 miles off the coast of Brunswick on October 14 and never came home. A fishing bin from the boat was discovered about 16 miles off the shore of St. Augustine Sunday, a sign that their boat may be nearby.
Monday, a helicopter crew hired by the boaters' family may have seen a red life raft floating in the water near Crescent Beach.
Barlow's mother, Kim Jones, said that because of the direction of the wind, the raft is expected to end up on or near the beach soon. Late Monday afternoon, she was walking the beach with five volunteers, hoping to spot the raft.
A Facebook page for the families posted a picture of the raft, asking for help.
The post stresses that the raft seen has not been confirmed to be from the Carol Ann.
Jones, met up with Wilkinson's mom, Jennifer Monday evening in Marineland where they suspended the search due to darkness.
"This is the area where we are at now where they would say it would be likely for things to wash up," Jones said.
"Any bit of information we get we are acting on I mean 150%," Wilkinson said.
A Coast Guard vessel did search the area Sunday night after the fish bin was found.
Before calling off the search, the Coast Guard searched for the missing boaters all the way up to the Carolinas, before a tip led to a sweep of the St. Augustine area.
They covered 90,000 miles in the search.
Jones is not giving up hope. She spoke with First Coast News Monday, wearing a shirt that said "#WONTSTOP" and "Carol Ann."
“They are hardy south Georgia boys. They’ve got grit. They can survive. We now have real evidence, you know, the bin coming in, and if they’re in that life raft, they will be alive and we know that," she said. "We know our boys.”