The U.S. Coast Guard located a second body in the ongoing search for the missing Florida dad, Ace Kimberly, and his three teen kids on Thursday, June 23.
USCG Capt. Gregory Cage told NBC 6 News that helicopter and boat crews saw what appeared to be a white flare go off at 2:26 a.m. early Thursday and found the second body later that same afternoon.
They have yet to positively identify the second body, although Sadie Dilts, the kids’ aunt, told the Tampa Bay Times that the body found on Wednesday belonged to her eldest niece, 17-year-old Rebecca.
Rebecca was last seen with her father, Ace, and her two brothers, Donny, 15, and Roger, 13, aboard a 29-foot sailboat on their way to Fort Myers from Sarasota on Sunday, June 19.
According to ABC News, at around 3 p.m., Kimberly called his brother to say that the boat was caught in 6-foot seas near Englewood, 30 miles from Sarasota. The Associated Press reports that the brother said that Kimberly indicated the family was sailing through “rough seas and thunderstorms” and wanted to get weather reports from on land.
“We will be holding out hope until the last body is found alive or dead,” Dilts told the Times. (Dilts is the sister of Pauline Solsberry, Kimberly’s ex-wife and the mother of the three children.)
On Wednesday, the Coast Guard also found six life jackets, a tarp, water bottles and a propane tank.
Kimberly and his children had been living on the boat for about a year.
