Missing 88-year-old fisherman found dead in water wearing life jacket, TX officials say
Update: The “experienced boat handler and fisherman” was found dead on April 26, wearing a life jacket, the sheriff’s office announced. He was identified as 88-year-old W.F. Childress.
He was found about 10 miles from his capsized boat, officials said in a news release. His body showed no other “visible” signs of trauma.
“Mr. Childress was an experienced boat handler and fisherman who obviously was unable to find safe harbor during yesterdays storm,” Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said in the release. “Prayers to him, his family and friends for this tragic loss, may he rest In peace.”
Original story continues below:
Officials are searching for an 88-year-old fisherman in Texas after he went out on his boat and disappeared.
The 88-year-old man left from Smith Point at 8:30 a.m. on April 25 but had not returned by nightfall, the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
Departments are searching the Trinity area in Galveston Bay for signs of the experienced boater, who was headed to the Anahuac Channel and whom officials did not name.
“He’s very familiar with the water and has spent most of his life fishing and shrimping the Galveston/Trinity Bay Complex, so we are very hopeful and praying that he has mechanical problems or ran aground and we’ll find him in the morning,” Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said in the release.
The man’s 16-foot boat was recovered in the bay on April 26 but with no sign of the fisherman, the sheriff said.
Smith Point is about 70 miles east of Houston.
This story was originally published April 26, 2022 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Missing 88-year-old fisherman found dead in water wearing life jacket, TX officials say."
