A VITAL item was found to be missing in the boat of two fishermen who vanished under “unusual circumstances.”
Randall Spivey, 57, and his nephew Brandon Billmaier, 33, have been missing for one month after embarking on a fishing trip.
Randall Spivey and Brandon Billmaier went missing on December 19Credit: Instagram/deborah_sb_
The men’s boat was found with the engine runningCredit: WPBF
The two men were not foundCredit: Instagram/deborah_sb_
The uncle-nephew duo was first reported missing at 9 pm on December 19, sparking a massive rescue search that came to a stop just a few days later.
On December 22, the Coast Guard suspended its rescue operations, leading the case to be deemed a missing persons case.
The FBI joined the investigation to help find the missing men.
“It is standard practice for the FBI to assist our law enforcement partners if we have a tool, tactic, or technique that could benefit their investigations,” Andrea Aprea, spokesperson for the FBI, told the Fort Myers News-Press.
“We assisted the US Coast Guard and Lee County Sheriff’s Office in the search for the missing boaters and will be ready again to lend our assistance if information develops to suggest a violation of federal law.”
Two days before the FBI joined the investigation, detectives found the men’s boat, named Unstopp-A-Bull, floating upright in the Gulf about 70 miles off the coast of Naples.
The engine was still running, but investigators discovered that two of the life jackets on the boat were missing.
The two men were nowhere to be found, but the missing life jackets could indicate they were forced to abandon their boat and take the floatation devices with them.
This means the men could have survived for hours on the water, but investigators have not given any updates since the search was called off.
The discovery expanded the search radius to 6,700 square miles of open water, an area equal to the size of Connecticut, according to a December 22 press release by the Coast Guard.
“The Coast Guard diligently searched with our pilots, boat forces, cutter crews, and numerous partners,” Lieutenant Amy Harrison, a search and rescue mission coordinator for Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, said in a statement.
“We saturated an incredibly large search area but, unfortunately, were unable to locate the two missing men.”
The Coast Guard thanked all volunteers who helped with the rescue mission as they finally called off the search.
“There is no harder decision than suspending a search,” Capt. Corrie Sergent, commanding officer of Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, said.
“I am incredibly grateful for the crews, partners, and volunteers across this community who executed this massive search with the utmost professionalism, persistence, and compassion.
“We offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of Mr. Spivey and Mr. Billmaier during this extremely difficult time.”
The two men were first reported missing by their families after they promised to be home by sunset but never returned.
Billmaier’s law firm, the Shiner Law Group, described Brandon as an “exceptional attorney” whose “kindness, integrity, and character left a lasting mark on our Firm.”
“Brandon will always be part of the Shiner Law Group family,” wrote the firm in a statement.
“We will continue to honor his memory, his friendship, and the positive impact he had on all of us.”