Coast Guard Intensifies Search for Two Missing Florida Fishermen

The U.S. Coast Guard intensified its search Monday for two experienced Florida fishermen missing since Friday after their unmanned boat was found drifting 70 miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico near Fort Myers.

Randall Spivey, 57, and his nephew Brandon Billmaier, 33, set out early Friday morning, December 19, from a private dock in Iona on Spivey's 42-foot Freeman catamaran for a bottom fishing trip. The pair, both attorneys with deep-sea fishing experience dating back to their childhoods, were expected to return by late afternoon. When they failed to do so, family members reported them missing around 7:30 p.m. that evening.

Coast Guard crews deployed a helicopter shortly after 11 p.m. Friday. At approximately 1:30 a.m. Saturday, officials located the vessel still running and in gear. A swimmer boarded the boat, anchored it to halt its drift, and confirmed no one was aboard. The men's Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon remained on the vessel, unused for a distress signal, while life jackets were absent from the boat, leading searchers to believe the fishermen may have been wearing them when they went overboard.

The operation remains a search-and-rescue effort, centered...