WEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A recovery mission has continued on Wednesday morning for a man who went missing after falling off a personal watercraft at a West Miami-Dade lake.
At around 7:30 a.m., Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers responded to the lake near Northwest 25th Street and 127th Avenue to continue searching for 20-year-old Alexander Garcia.
On Tuesday night, Miami-Dade Police and Fire Rescue crews responded to the scene after receiving a call about a boating accident involving two occupants on a personal watercraft.
“They’re all sitting there waiting for an answer,” said the victim’s cousins Darnay and Maura.
A family is heartbroken, sitting and waiting at the lake’s edge for investigators to bring their son back to them.
In the air and on the water, Florida Fish and Wildlife officers resumed their search on this West Miami-Dade lake for Garcia.
“He loved jet ski riding and bikes, you know,” Garcia’s cousins said.
Garcia along with his friends were doing what they loved on this lake off Northwest 127th Avenue near the Dolphin Expressway. That’s when around dusk investigators say Garcia was on a personal watercraft with his girlfriend when they were flung off.
“He hit something, they fell off, and his girlfriend got rescued,” Maura said. “He was swimming toward the jet-ski, and they didn’t see him no more. They turned back and saw him get sucked down there.”
Garcia, sadly, would not resurface. The search was called off Tuesday night but not before officers were seen searching this pick-up and the PWC attached to it.
Some 12 hours later, the search resumed with crews utilizing the daylight. 7 SkyForce spotted a PWC seen flipped upside down, floating in the murky water. Members of the Miami-Dade Police Department dive recovery team stood by at the lake’s edge.
A man who works nearby shared a cellphone video from a few months ago of people riding their Jet Skis.
“It’s pretty dangerous,” he said on condition of anonymity. “There’s no navigational markers, obviously, you know there could be other under surface hazards that could be an issue.”
That danger apparently found Alex and his friends Tuesday night.
“It’s so sad. It’s just a sad situation,” Darnay said.
It’s unclear how long the search for Garcia will continue but crews investigators were seen at the lake again on Thursday morning.
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