Search Called Off For Missing Fort Worth Kayaker
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FORT WORTH (CBS11) - Monday evening, search crews called off the search for a missing kayaker's body.
For the last few days Fort Worth Fire Department search and rescue crews, along with other agencies, were in the water trying to find Edgar Castro. But Monday, three days after he was last seen, this has turned into a land recovery mission that was unsuccessful.
By air and on the ground is how the Fort Worth Fire Department spent its last day trying to find Castro.
"The river runs and it kind of fools people sometimes. It don't look like it's running very fast, but it does," Fernando Rojas, a Fort Worth Fire Battalion Chief, explained.
Castro was kayaking with a friend when their boats overturned Saturday morning.
"The very first day is very important," Rojas noted. "Obviously, if we don't locate it at that time, from that point on it's no longer a rescue, it's a recovery."
Castro's friend made it to safety, but Castro has yet to be found.
"We look at, obviously, along the banks. That's usually where people end up, along the banks. And the spillways, we look closely to make sure we don't see anything," Rojas told us.
On the last day of the search we were with James Castillo and Jackey Haggard as they patrolled the levees off White Settlement Road. This is the last place a witness reported seeing something.
The team spent most of the time in their brush truck, covering as much ground as they can. Finding Castro is their main objective, but they're also looking for clues like his clothing or a backpack Castro was wearing when he was last seen.
Fort Worth Fire had three crews searching for Castro Monday, including one on the far east side.
His family was notified earlier that they were calling off the search. And at this point, they've notified all the surrounding cities that the Trinity River feeds into, hoping that his body will eventually turn up.
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