U.S. Coast Guard is in third day of search for missing Oceanside boater
The U.S. Coast Guard spent a third straight day
scanning wide swaths of ocean off the North County coastline on Wednesday in search of
an Oceanside man who went missing during a recreational cruise on his small
motorboat.
The federal maritime agency kept two cutters and two helicopters
crisscrossing roughly 600 square miles of water and shoreline from La Jolla to
San Clemente in hopes of locating 52-year-old Loren Ruden, USCG Petty Officer
1st Class Henry Dunphy said.
The effort was expected to continue at least into the early evening,
after which authorities plan to re-evaluate how to proceed, according to
Dunphy.
The FBI began investigating Ruden's disappearance Tuesday because it
occurred in U.S. territorial waters, over which the investigative body has
jurisdiction.
Ruden, a married father of three grown children, was reported missing
late Monday afternoon after his border collie, Sadie, was spotted swimming to
shore near an Oceanside jetty. A beachgoer caught the animal and located
Ruden's wife by using information on the dog's collar tag. How and where the
animal had left the boat was a mystery.
The search for Ruden began in earnest that evening and has continued since.
About 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, Ruden's 21-foot skiff, named “Lucky Dog,” was
found unoccupied and slowly circling under its own power in the ocean north
of La Jolla. A Coast Guard boat crew pulled alongside the vacated vessel,
boarded it and turned off the engine, then towed the vessel back to Oceanside.
Authorities examined Ruden's boat, including its global-positioning
equipment, in hopes of determining what happened to him, but found little to go
on, Dunphy said.
Statements from Ruden's family led authorities to believe that one of
several life jackets he kept on his boat was gone, providing hope that he had
been wearing it when he went overboard.
Ruden, a commercial charter-fishing captain, was on a pleasure outing
with his dog on the day he disappeared, according to his sister, Angie
Richards.
