Community Corner

Updated: No Word If Body Is Missing Aegean Skipper

Officials will not say whether a body found near the Coronado Islands belongs to Theo Mavromatis, who was not found among the wreckage of his yacht, the Aegean.

Update: The body has been identified as .

Original story:

The body discovered over the weekend near the Coronado Islands by a pair of fisherman will be identified through dental records, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Monday.

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Officials have not said whether they believe the body—which so far has only been identified as a man between the ages of 45 and 55—is that of Theo Mavromatis, the skipper of the 37-foot sailboat Aegean, which crashed during the annual Lexus Newport Beach to Ensenada Yacht Race.

The boat’s remains and the bodies of three of its crewmen—William R. Johnson Jr., 57, of Torrance; Kevin Rudolph, 53, of Manhattan Beach; and Joseph L. Stewart, 64, of Bradenton, Fla.—were discovered scattered in a two-mile debris field near the islands during the afternoon of April 28.

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On Sunday afternoon, San Clemente resident John Spike Ivins and Huntington Beach resident Kevin Veal were fishing near the islands when they saw the body.

"Kevin and I saw something in the Middle Grounds (Coronado Islands) which at first we thought was a dead, bloated sea lion,” Ivins told Phil Friedman Outdoors. “As we got closer to the floating object, we were stunned to see human arms and legs. (It was) absolutely shocking.”

Ivins said the body was bloated, decomposed and had neither hair nor clothes. Ivins called the U.S. Coast Guard and stayed with the body until they arrived.

The man's body was handed over to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office and was scheduled to be examined Monday. According to a notice on the Medical Examiner’s Office website, the person’s next of kin have not been notified.

Mavromatis’ daughter, Anna Mavromati, said her family “was told it would have to wait for confirmation,” the Daily Breeze reported.

Nevertheless, Niki Burgan of the SoCal H2O Rescue Team told NBC San Diego that she believed the remains belong to the missing skipper.

"The time frame is exactly right for these remains to have come to the surface," Burgan told the television station. She also noted that the body was found near an area she had been searching and that no other missing persons had been reported in the area.

Burgan continued the search for Mavromatis once the Coast Guard suspended its search efforts on April 29.

A floating debris field suggested that the ill-fated Hunter 376 collided with a larger vessel—a theory initially advanced by race officials. Others have suggested, based on data from Mavromatis' GPS tracker, that the boat collided with the northern tip of the Coronado Islands at about 1:30 a.m. April 28.

The accident occurred just south of the U.S.-Mexico border, about eight miles off the Baja California coast.

The Coast Guard is investigating the crash, and Public Affairs Specialist Henry Dunphy told Scuttlebutt Sailing Forum administrator Craig Leweck that the investigation is expected to take four to six weeks. People with information regarding the accident are asked to call the Coast Guard at 619-278-7033.

Additionally, the U.S. Sailing Association will convene a review panel to investigate the crash. Anyone with information is asked to contact ensenadareview@ussailing.org.

Whatever the cause of the crash, Ivins said the discovery “hit home” after he heard speculation that the body may belong to Mavromatis.

“My wife sent me some articles on Mavromatis, and that’s when it hit home,” he said. “I thought about his family and my kids today. It’s just very sad.”

Previously:

—City News Service and Newport Beach Patch Editor Nisha Gutierrez-Jaime contributed to this report.


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