Coast Guard ends boater search

Associated Press

LA PUSH — The Coast Guard on Friday ended its search for a Spokane minister and his three grandsons, missing after their small fishing boat capsized off the Washington coast.

Air and sea searchers found scattered debris but no sign of the men in two days of searching over more than 400 square miles, Petty Officer Tom Zolzer said in Seattle.

The search was called off when officials decided there was no chance of finding the men alive in the water, he said.

A seat cushion, hand-held horn, shoes, tackle box and fishing gloves were recovered, as was an ice chest cooler, Coast Guard spokesman Anthony Juarez said.

The 17-foot Boston whaler was found overturned in the fog on Little James Island, just outside LaPush’s harbor, early Thursday.

The four were identified as Tom Starr, 67, the pastor at Maranatha Bible Church at Lake Newman, east of Spokane, and three grandsons: James Starr, 20, of Spokane, and Ryan Floch, 21, and Andrew Floch, 20, both of Odessa.

"Any loss of life is unacceptable to me," said Capt. Bill Peterson, Coast Guard commander in nearby Port Angeles, on the Olympic Peninsula. "Unfortunately, the sea is unforgiving."

The seat cover and hand-held horn were found near the boat, said Petty Officer 2nd Class Sarah Foster-Snell.

Tom Starr’s wife, Betty, said she believed the men would have been wearing life jackets.

"I feel the strength of all these prayers, because that’s what’s held me up," she said earlier.

The search involved three helicopters, a 110-foot cutter and two other boats, the Coast Guard said.

Searchers were surprised they found so little sign of the men.

"It’s baffling to us," Peterson said earlier. "They thought they should have seen something."

Peterson said the Boston Whaler was not equipped with a marine-band radio capable of signaling for help.

The search area extended about seven nautical miles offshore and northward along the coast as far as Cape Alava. Crews from Olympic National Park and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary combed the beach.

Starr was pastor at Maranatha Bible Church for six years, associate pastor Don Ensor said. Previously, he was pastor for more than 19 years at Valley Fourth Memorial Church in Spokane.

He had founded his own church in Boise, Idaho, in 1964, and began the Kettle Falls Youth Ranch in 1971.

He had been active in the Greater Spokane Association of Evangelicals and Mission Spokane, a 3-year-old movement aiming at spiritual rebirth, said the Rev. John Tusant, executive director of the evangelicals association.

"He has touched so many lives, from the Canadian border to central Montana to eastern Oregon," Tusant said.

Starr and his wife had lived in the Spokane area for more than 30 years.

Ryan and Andrew Floch graduated from Odessa High School and attended Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake. Ryan was an all-state basketball player who recently transferred to Eastern Washington University in Cheney.

LaPush harbormaster Larry Jackson said he last saw the men Wednesday afternoon as they were leaving. He said their vessel appeared to be having engine trouble.