The victims of an Alaska fishing-trip disaster were all members of the same family now ripped apart, authorities.
Eight members of the Tyau family set out, divided among two chartered boats, for an Alaska adventure over Memorial Day weekend. It ended with three of them dead and two missing.
Two sisters and one of their husbands died when one of the two boats wrecked off Sitka, and the other sister’s partner and the boat captain have not been found. The boat was found partially sunk off an island, and investigators are still piecing together the mystery of what happened. The search, which covered 825 square miles, was suspended for good on Monday.
On the wrecked boat were Danielle Agcaoili, 53, of Waipahu, Hawaii, and her sister Brandi Tyau, 56, of Canoga Park, California, along with Robert Solis, 61, Tyau’s partner, and boat captain Morgan Robidou, 32. The bodies of Agcaoili and Tyau were recovered from the boat around 5 p.m. last Wednesday, while Solis and Robidou remained missing. Agcaoili’s partner, 57-year-old Maury Agcaoili, had been found unresponsive in the water near the boat and pronounced dead, authorities said.
On the other boat, which made it to its destination, were the sisters’ parents, their older brother and their sister-in-law.
Normally split between California and Hawaii, the family members had agreed to meet in Sitka for a fishing trip, even though some of them did not like fishing. They were headed to a destination fishery, drawn by its reputation for king salmon and groundfish, on a three-day trip that would unite some of them for the first time in a decade.
“I don’t think all eight of us have been together in over 10 years,” said older brother Michael Tyau. “It was just supposed to be a simple family get-together for eight of us, since we haven’t been together in the same spot for so long. For it to turn out like this is really devastating.”