Vandepeer family boating tragedy: Relatives speak out as police say they don’t expect to find survivors
UPDATED: THE relatives of the family missing for three days in a boat off Cape Jaffa have spoken of their heartbreaking hope to see their loved ones alive.
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THE relatives of the family missing for three days in a boat off Cape Jaffa have spoken of their heartbreaking hope to see their loved ones alive.
Sarah Vandepeer, Len Vandepeer’s sister, said the family was trying to be realistic.
“We acknowledge it would take a miracle to see our family alive now,” she said.
“Albeit, we are still praying for a miracle.”
Speaking on behalf of her nephew Stephen, her brother Angus, Doug’s partner Rachel Savage and the extended Vandepeer and Annette’s family, she thanked the “phenomenal” effort of police, SES and CFS volunteers and local community for helping in the extensive search.
“The rescue efforts had been extensive but unfortunately the reward for effort has not been what we have like,” she said
“What this tragedy had brought home to us is how wonderful the local community has been.
“The effort of the local farming and fishing community aiding the search and many friends and neighbours offering support had been absolutely outstanding.
“We know many people in the districts have been very close friends with Len, Annette and Doug for many years — if not all their lives and the generation before that — and they’re also in a state of shock and disbelief.”
She said the family was “taking comfort in the knowledge” the community was “sharing” their grief.
Members of the family became visibly emotional as Ms Vandepeer addressed the media.
The search began after Len and Annette Vandepeer, both aged 57, and their adult son Doug, 27,
went missing in their 7m Quintrex boat off the coast of Cape Jaffa on Monday night.
Police, the SES and locals will continue to search on Friday aided by with fixed-wing aircraft and patrols on land, Superintendent Grant Moyle said.
Earlier on Thursday, he said police didn’t expect to find any survivors of the prominent South-East farming family.
The search entered its third day on Thursday morning, with hopes of finding them alive fade.
This afternoon, police said they and the family “have come to the reality that the Vandepeers are deceased”.
Supt Moyle said the family was facing the likelihood that the trio would not be found alive.
“They have come to the reality that if any of the three survived, we would’ve found them by now,” he said.
“The search continues with the acceptance by the family that it would be a miracle if anyone had survived.”
More debris was found on the South-East coast on Thursday but none was identified by family members as coming from the missing boat.
Supt Moyle said police were “no closer to determining exactly what happened” when the boat capsized and may never know what caused the tragedy.
Supt Moyle said a member of the public spotted a boat travelling north, parallel to the beach, north of Kingston on Monday afternoon.
“While we haven’t had a positive identification of the boat they saw as belonging to the (Vandepeer) family, it fits with the general area,” he said.
“What it certainly shows is that if it wasn’t them, there were other boats in the area at the time.”
Police have not ruled out using divers to search in the future as they continue to assess their findings each day.
Supt Moyle said it was a “tough call” to make on when they would call off the search.
He said a support team was assisting locals and friends of the missing family helping in the search.
A police boat and divers searched Nations Rock on Thursday morning, where a seat top, plastic tub and bucket used to carry the anchor and rope was found 20km north of Kingston on Wednesday.
The discovery of the seat top led police to believe the boat had capsized.
They had no luck with just two metres’ visibility and called off the water search as swells grew over three metres.
Helicopters from Adelaide resumed an air search on Thursday afternoon.
The search began after Len and Annette Vandepeer, both aged 57, and their adult son Doug, 27,
went missing in their 7m Quintrex boat off the coast of Cape Jaffa on Monday night.
Police said on Wednesday evening that boats would not return to the water unless something further was found.
However, Water Operations returned to the seas on Thursday morning to search an area around a nearby reef.
More than 3000 square nautical miles have been searched over the past three days.