Search suspended for two missing Sitka men

Josiah Bracken, left, and Quinn Whitten, right. (Photos provided by Sitka Police Department)

By Anna Laffrey and Shannon Haugland

Daily Sitka Sentinel

The search for two men last seen Saturday night setting out in a skiff from Sitka for Camp Coogan Bay has been suspended, the Coast Guard announced Wednesday afternoon.

The search was started Monday evening after the men, Josiah Bracken, 31, and Quinn Whitten, 50, both of Sitka, were reported missing.

Petty Officer Ashly Murphy, a spokeswoman for USCG Arctic District in Juneau, said this afternoon that “as of 1 p.m. today the Coast Guard has suspended the search for the two missing boaters pending development of new information.”

Friends said the two men left Back Beach in a 14-foot silver and blue Lund skiff at around 11 p.m. Saturday with plans to travel to a float house in Camp Coogan Bay, about five miles away across Eastern Channel. They failed to return on Sunday as planned, and around 6 p.m. Monday the friends went to the police station to ask for a welfare check, Sitka Police reported. 

The Coast Guard was contacted at about 7:30 p.m. Monday, Murphy said.

The Coast Guard was unable to search Monday night, due to poor conditions, but a crew member from a Good Samaritan vessel checked the floathouse and shoreline Monday night, and found no signs that anyone had been to the floathouse, Murphy said. 

At 8:17 a.m. Tuesday Coast Guard Air Station Sitka launched a search helicopter, and a 38-foot Coast Guard Aids to Navigation vessel was sent out to search area waters and the Eastern Channel shorelines, Murphy said. 

The Sitka Coast Guard Air Station launched a helicopter again this morning to continue plying area waters and shorelines in search of the two men. 

The USCG Cutter John McCormick, homeported in Ketchikan, arrived in Sitka on Tuesday to assist with the search. Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Sitka Search and Rescue, the U.S. Forest Service and three additional Good Samaritan vessels have assisted with the search since Tuesday. 

In a posting to Facebook Monday evening, USCG Sector Southeast stated that the two men were last seen departing from Back Beach on Friday. "But "with updated information, we now believe it was Saturday,” Murphy said today. 

The National Weather Service reported low temperatures of 24 and 23 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday and Sunday, respectively, with east winds between 20 and 30 miles per hour over the weekend. The local water temperature is about 45 degrees Fahrenheit. 

“No confirmed vessels matching the description of the boat that we are looking for have been found,” Murphy said today, before USCG announced that it was suspending the search. 

Murphy said that USCG and its partner rescue crews "searched 158 square miles for over 22 hours before making the very difficult decision to suspend the search."

“Our thoughts go out to all who knew these two men, during this time,” Murphy said. “The decision to suspend a search is never easy and (was) made based on the careful consideration of a variety of different factors."

“We’d also like to make it known that we’re very grateful for the assistance of our partner agencies and the Good Samaritan vessels,” Murphy said.

• This story originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel.