As the Coast Guard ended its search for three men still missing after a boating accident, the one survivor found told police that they had allowed themselves to be taken to sea.
The horrific account given by Nick Schuyler, the only man found alive after the tragedy, was that a few hours after the boat they were riding capsized, one of the NFL players Marquis Cooper and Corey Smith, suddenly took off his life jacket, and allowed himself to be carried off to sea. A few hours later, the other followed.
After several more hours according to Schuyler’s account, the third missing man Will Bleakley, said that he saw a light, and he too took off his life jacket, attempting to swim towards it to get help, an action that many believe was prompted by a hallucination.
Ray Sanchez, Cooper’s cousin, said the Coast Guard told him the same thing, but cautioned against taking Schuyler’s story as gospel at this point.
“We’re not 100 percent sure where his head was at,” Sanchez said. “He’d been through a lot.”
Schuyler suffered from hypothermia and weakness, which could have affected his memory and thinking.
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