Two Florida men left for a day of fishing and never came back. Randall Spivey, 57, and his nephew, 33-year-old Brandon Billmaier, both of whom are attorneys, headed out from Fort Myers before sunrise on Friday in a 42-foot Freeman fishing boat and were expected to return that afternoon, relatives say. When evening passed with no calls or messages, Billmaier's wife, Deborah, alerted the US Coast Guard, triggering an overnight air search across the Gulf of Mexico, per Fox News. Early Sunday, a Coast Guard crew spotted the vessel drifting about 70 miles off the Florida coast. The engine was still running and the boat was in gear, officials said, but Spivey and Billmaier were gone.
Investigators also found the boat's emergency position-indicating radio beacon, which can transmit distress signals, still on board the vessel, which has since been taken to Fort Myers Beach. Hoping the pair were wearing life jackets, officials continued searching for them until sunset on Monday, when the search was suspended, per Gulf Coast News. In a statement, relatives of the missing said they were informed there is a high likelihood "that if Randy and Brandon were on the surface of the water, they would have been found." They added "the search effort has covered an area larger than the entire state of Connecticut."
The family described this as the right decision, though a "heartbreaking" one. Spivey "was an attorney helping those who were injured for over 30 years," with Billmaier following in footsteps of his uncle, whom he looked up to as a father figure, the statement said. He and Deborah had just married, a relative tells Gulf Coast News. Authorities are asking anyone with information on the men's whereabouts to reach out. Spivey is described as 6'1", 245 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes, last seen in khaki pants and a dark shirt. Billmaier is 6'2", 250 pounds, with strawberry blond hair and brown eyes.
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