Update on this case: Vega was located a short time ago at the Brass Monkey Bar in Marathon. The bartender recognized him, knew we were looking for him and called the Sheriff’s Office to report he was there. We are still talking to him in an attempt to find out how the boat wound up adrift in the Everglades.
51 year old Juan Vega called and texted his son, Juan Vega, Jr. saying he was going to kill himself late Sunday. Deputy Daniel Hill went to Vega’s home at Key by the Sea RV Park a short time later to check on him. His roommate was home but he was not. The roommate said Vega may have taken his cousin’s boat out. He said Vega had taken the boat out before and he described the boat as a 23 foot T-Craft commercial trap boat with large lettering on the sides. It has no top and has a large trap winch on it. The boat was usually docked on 52nd Street Gulf in Marathon.
Deputies checked that location and found the boat gone. They also found Vega’s white Cadillac Escalade parked nearby. The owner of the boat said Vega had taken the boat out before, but that he didn’t know the waters well and the boat didn’t have much fuel in it.Deputy Hill met with the U.S. Coast Guard and they went out overnight on a Coast Guard vessel to search for the boat and for Vega with no results.