Barbados Coast Guard(NEW YORK) — Authorities recovered a jet ski over the weekend bearing the same registration number as the one an American couple was riding before they went missing in Barbados last month.
French Navy officers found the missing jet ski hundreds of miles away in Guadeloupe on Saturday, nearly two weeks after Magdalena Devil and Oscar Suarez, of New Jersey, vanished at sea, authorities said.
There were no signs of the missing couple.
The pair disappeared on June 24 after renting after a jet ski at Holetown Beach on the western coast of Barbados, authorities said.
The jet ski operator became concerned about 30 minutes later and asked other operators to be on the lookout for them, according to the Royal Barbados Police Force. They notified police later, telling officers that the couple appeared to be lost at sea.
Authorities suspended an intensive search for the couple on June 30 after the U.S. withdrew its assisting aircraft, according to local news outlets.
Local authorities said the couple’s families would be informed of the discovery soon.
Mia Mottley, the island’s prime minister, said she met with the pair’s families last week and offered to fly them to Barbados, her office said in a statement Sunday.
“Last Monday Prime Minister Mottley met with the families of the missing couple at Ilaro Court and expressed regret at the unfortunate events and invited them to return to this island anytime over the next year at Government’s expense, if it would assist them in bringing closure to the matter,” the statement said. “Prime Minister Mia Mottley and Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds have been informed of the discovery and local authorities will make immediate contact with the families to inform them of the development.”
Investigators said Suarez and Devil checked into their shared room at Discovery Bay Hotel in St. James on June 22 and were scheduled to depart the following week, according to the hotel.
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