Today the Police Department called off the official search for an American man lost at sea for 8 days and his family wants to know why they were the last ones to know. Last Wednesday morning 68-year-old American John Drest disappeared during a snorkeling trip to Caye Caulker's "Shark and Ray Alley" with Discovery Divers. John was with his brother Donald and his sister-in-law Winifred. The couple is still in Belize and have vowed to stay in Belize until his body is recovered. They say the worse thing about the last 8 days is that no one: not the police, not the Tourism Board, and not Discovery Divers is telling them anything.
Donald Drest, Brother of Missing Snorkeler
"We want some answers because my brother should not have died."
Winifred Drest, Sister-in-law of Missing Snorkeler
"We will go to the international media if that is the only way we'll get attention."
Donald Drest,
"If they just treated us with some courtesy, and some concern. Since five o'clock we've had no contact with the police and I'm really upset."
Keith Swift,
The police say they don't call because they have no new information to tell you.
Donald Drest,
"That's inhumane that they wouldn't deal with us each day and tell us
the latest on everything. And what's especially terrible is that we know that they found eight bodies in Honduras. We knew that five of them were Honduras, we know that somebody from the Belize Police Department went there to see if my brother was one of the three and they never contacted us."
Winifred Drest,
"We learn more from the internet and from the media than we have from the police and all we'd like is just one call a day saying, 'we're thinking of you, we're still searching, and we care.' But we just feel like we're left here, abandoned."
Donald Drest,
"And see the catch is that we are not leaving. We will not leave until we have my brother's deal."
This evening operations manager for Discovery Divers Tony Reid told 7NEWS that the Police Department told his company that the search need not continue. Police spokesman g. Michael Reid says the aggressive search for John Drest has been called off because after 7 days we can safely assume it is futile. He adds that the police and its partners cannot afford to continue daily searching. He says boats and aircrafts are still being asked to lookout for Drest. The family met with Tourism Board director Tracy Panton on Monday and have been promised a meeting with BTB Chair Therese Rath. They have retained a local attorney.
