Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your
contribution is not tax-deductible.)
PayPal Acct: 
Feedback: 
Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):
| [ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, 3, [4] ] |
| Subject: Woman disappears while fishing on the Red Rooster III | |
|
Author: ED |
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 923677072PDT Randall Holman gets credit for finding this one taken from a San Diago news site. by Ed Zieralski UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER April 6, 1999 SAN DIEGO -- Fishing was excellent aboard the Red Rooster III on a recent long-range trip. All the passengers were enjoying it, except for one couple. Jarrett Nahem, 31, and his fiancée, Faren McGirt, 24, both of Los Angeles, were asked to try to get along and not disrupt the other 14 fishermen on board. The two boarded the boat in San Diego on March 16, but they stayed in their cabin for most of the 18-day trip's early days. When they emerged, their constant quarreling, bickering and strange behavior disrupted the trip to the point that McGirt was allowed to sleep in a separate room. But as bad as the trip was for them, it turned tragic when McGirt disappeared from the boat early Wednesday morning in waters south of Cabo San Lucas. The FBI, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Customs agents are investigating the disappearance. "It looks to be a suicide, but we're not ruling out foul play or that she may have fallen off the boat," said Lt. Chris Palmer of the San Diego-based U.S. Coast Guard. Investigators also suspect illegal drugs may have played a role because they said Nahem told them he and McGirt had used illegal drugs in the past. Passengers and crewmen told investigators that the couple hardly came out of their berth for the first four days of the trip, and when they did, they acted strange and hyper. McGirt later caught a 232-pound yellowfin, the second-biggest fish on the trip, and that added to the couple's bickering, investigators said. Apparently, Nahem didn't like being outfished. Palmer said McGirt had left notes on the boat, and that McGirt handed a note to someone on the boat. The FBI is looking at those items and other evidence. "We aren't ruling out foul play, and we're not ruling out suicide," said Keith Moses, a spokesman for the FBI. "I wouldn't feel comfortable saying there was a suicide note or notes. "There were some handwritten notes found on the vessel. But what if someone was trying to cover up and make it look like suicide? We're taking the middle ground and will analyze the evidence." McGirt disappeared on the 15th day of the boat's 18-day excursion to fish for tuna and wahoo at Mexico's Revillagigedo Islands. "I was the last person to see her alive," said Andy Cates, the Red Rooster III's regular captain, but a deckhand on this trip. "I was on my roving watch, and she was sitting right there on a tackle box, smoking a cigarette." Cates said he saw McGirt on his way to the engine room at about 1:20 Wednesday morning. "It was dead-flat calm," Cates said. "When I came up from the engine room, I figured she went to sleep. She'd been doing that every night, so it wasn't unusual. We found her sleeping in the upper deck, sitting in the galley, in different parts of the boat. She was trying to avoid her boyfriend. They'd been arguing." By 5:45 a.m. Wednesday, Cates and Capt. Bryan Haslam were alerted that McGirt was missing after Nahem began asking if anyone had seen her. Crewman Jimmy Burwell had the two-hour roving watch after Cates, and he didn't see her during that period. They checked the entire boat but didn't find her. Coast Guard officials ordered the Red Rooster III to spend Wednesday retracing its route to Cabo San Lucas. A Mexican Navy helicopter, a U.S. Coast Guard plane and several private planes joined the search. But McGirt was gone. Red Rooster III owner Linda Palm said Nahem and McGirt were regular long-rangers on the boat for the last few years. Captains at the dock yesterday remember Nahem since he was 15 years old. He used to arrive for some fishing trips in a limousine. Nahem paid $8,000 for his latest adventure on the 105-foot luxury sport fishing boat, more than $10,000 when the cost of gear and incidentals are included. Palmer said the Red Rooster III's seven crewmen were ordered to take drug tests. He doesn't anticipate any action being taken against Capt. Haslam or the crew, unless someone tests positive. This is the latest incident to rock the San Diego Sportfishing Fleet. The Red Rooster III ran into an unidentified freighter at sea last October. No one was injured, but the boat sustained minor damage. Cates received a three-month suspension for allowing an unlicensed crewman to be at the wheel at the time of the accident. On Feb. 4, James "Rollo" Heyn, 39, the Royal Polaris' second captain and most popular crewman, was killed on the boat's long-range trip when a dangerous binary explosive device made on the boat and placed inside a coffee can ignited in his hands. Heyn bled to death over three hours as Capt. Steve Loomis attempted to get him medical attention. Loomis surrendered his captain's license over the matter, and the criminal investigation continues by the U.S. Attorney's Office. The last known person to be lost at sea from a sport boat was Los Angeles Daily News outdoors writer Jim Bertken, who was violently seasick and believed to have fallen off the Marauder out of Morro Bay in August 1995. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| Re: Woman disappears while fishing on the Red Rooster III | carmen mcgirt | 930235804PDT |
|
Forum timezone: GMT-8 VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB: Before posting please read our privacy policy. VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems. Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved. |