(Adds recovery of body, comments by Coast Guard official)
By Ian Simpson and Laila Kearney
June 22 (Reuters) - Searchers have recovered the body of one
of the family members whose sailboat went missing off the
Florida coast three days ago, a Coast Guard official said on
Wednesday.
A Coast Guard search helicopter found the body at about 4:30
p.m. EDT and turned it over to local authorities for positive
identification, said Captain Gregory Case, the St. Petersburg
sector commander.
"We still have three persons out there that we are trying
desperately to locate and we still have hope for that," Case
told reporters. He declined to give details about the body.
Ace Kimberly, 45, two sons aged 13 and 15, and a 17-year-old
daughter were last seen on Sunday when they set sail from
Sarasota, Florida, headed to Fort Myers. They were on the
family's 29-foot (9-meter) sailboat.
Case said the vessel ran into a storm with 6-foot (1.8
m)seas on Sunday off Englewood, a community about 30 miles (48
km) south of Sarasota.
The Coast Guard has said the family had lived on the vessel
for about a year. They were traveling to Fort Myers for repairs
to the boat, which was in poor condition.
Searchers found kayaks that had been towed by the boat as
well as a debris field about 37 miles offshore. It included six
life vests, a basketball, propane tank, tennis shoes and several
water bottles, which Kimberly's brother identified as belonging
to his relatives.
The search has also involved several state and local
maritime emergency responders. It will continue through the
night.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York and Ian Simpson in
Washington; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Matthew Lewis)
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