BODY FOUND IN SEARCH FOR MISSING BRITISH SAILOR IN THE CARIBBEAN
Authorities searching for a British sailor whose boat was reported missing in the Caribbean have found a body on board his yacht.
Authorities searching for a British sailor whose boat was reported missing in the Caribbean have found a body on board his yacht.
Mark Brennan, from South Shields, was reported missing to Northumbria Police on December 21 after he sailed across the Atlantic.
The coastguard in Jamaica has since recovered a body from a boat belonging to the 42-year-old, it has been reported.
According to Boatwatch, a volunteer-run civilian website that helps track missing boats, Mr Brennan arrived in Grenada from Barbados on December 2 after crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
His boat was seen leaving a marina in Grenada on December 6, with concerns over his welfare being raised 10 days later, the website said.
It described Mr Brennan as "a somewhat inexperienced sailor" and claimed his boat, named Avrio, had "no radio or cellular telephone" and had lost its dinghy in the trans-Atlantic crossing.
Boatwatch said it had made contact with Mr Brennan's family in the UK, including his mother, and a missing persons report was filed.
The website posted updates on the search for his boat and where it might have drifted, before saying on Wednesday that the Avrio had been found with a body on board.
The boat was picked up by the Jamaican coastguard and brought to Port Antonio in the east of the country, it said.
Boatwatch said Mr Brennan's boat had initially been spotted 71 nautical miles from the Jamaica coast.
A Northumbria Police spokeswoman said: "We can confirm a 42-year-old from South Shields was reported missing on December 21 after he had set sail to the Caribbean.
"Inquiries have been ongoing to trace him, and we have since been made aware that authorities in Jamaica have recovered a body on a boat.
"A formal identification process is ongoing but it is suspected that the body is that of the South Shields man.
"The relevant authorities in Jamaica are carrying out inquiries to establish the cause of death and we will continue to support their investigation in conjunction with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
"The man's family are being offered support by officers and they have requested that their privacy is respected at this time."
A FCO spokeswoman said: "We are supporting the family of a British man reported as missing in the Caribbean, and are in contact with the Jamaican authorities."
Published: by Radio NewsHub