OREGON INLET, N.C. — The Coast Guard suspended its search Monday for a 38-year-old man near Bonner Bridge in Oregon Inlet.
Missing is Kristopher Mueller of Avon.
Mueller was last known to be spear fishing in the vicinity of the Bonner Bridge. Sector North Carolina watchstanders were notified at 5:30 p.m. Saturday after Mueller had not been seen for more than an hour.
Mueller's vehicle was found by the National Park Service. Personnel from Coast Guard Station Oregon Inlet discovered Mueller's kayak with fish, a life jacket and a cell phone still aboard, as well as snorkeling gear on a piling nearby.
Crews who searched for Mueller were:
- Four C-130 Hercules airplane crews and three MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crews from Air Station Elizabeth City.
- Four 47-foot Motor Life Boat crews, two 24-foot Special Purpose Craft crews and a 29-foot Response Boat-Small crew from Station Oregon Inlet.
- The crews of Coast Guard Cutter Beluga and Cutter Cochito, both homeported in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Coast Guard crews covered more than 1,600 square miles and covered areas offshore east of Oregon Inlet and southwest into Pamlico Sound, just north of Cape Hatteras. The Coast Guard crews searched more than 60 combined hours.