PORT ANGELES — Active ground and sea searches for a kayaker missing since Monday evening near the mouth of the Elwha River have been suspended.
The searches for 31-year-old Matthew Hamilton of Port Angeles were called off late Tuesday, Coast Guard and Clallam County Sheriff’s Office personnel confirmed.
“We were fairly certain [Tuesday] afternoon that we had covered all avenues, and now our investigation begins to turn into a missing person investigation,” said Chief Criminal Deputy Brian King on Wednesday.
Hamilton left Freshwater Bay County Park at 7 p.m. Monday on an expected three-hour outing to Ediz Hook in Port Angeles, but he never arrived at the intended destination.
His kayak and phone were found near Charles Road on the Lower Elwha Reservation, but neither the Coast Guard nor the Sheriff’s Office found any other sign of the kayaker. A cell phone video taken by Hamilton on Monday evening and shared with family shows him kayaking near the mouth of the Elwha River. He was not wearing a life preserver.
“We did obtain video from his phone that showed him kayaking across and encountering some fairly rough surf conditions,” King said Wednesday.
“Based on the video we saw there, he was making comment that he was in some rough water. There was some swell and chop. Looking at geographic features in the video, we could see that he was near the mouth of the Elwha.”
The Sheriff’s Office was alerted about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning when a family friend of Hamilton reported his car was located at the Freshwater Bay County Park boat launch.
“We initiated a cell phone ping, essentially using GPS coordinates to locate the latitude and longitude of the phone,” King said.
“It provided us a location at Charles Road on the Lower Elwha Reservation. Soon thereafter, the kayak was located about 100 yards east of the Charles Road beach access point, and his phone was found with the kayak. At first light, the Sheriff’s Office deployed our marine unit patrol.”
Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles initially launched an MH-65 Dolphin rescue helicopter crew and a 45-foot response boat from Port Angeles to search for Hamilton in the early morning hours and added search crews by air and land during the day.
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Coast Guard Sector Columbia River (Astoria, Ore.) joined the search Tuesday morning, and two patrol boats aided rescue efforts.
“In addition to the two aircraft and the station boat — two 87-foot Coast Guard patrol boat crews, the Coast Guard Cutter Sea Lion based out of Bellingham and Coast Guard Cutter Adelie based out of Port Angeles searched throughout the day,” Petty Officer 1st Class Cynthia Oldham said.
Oldham said weather and tidal factors are weighed during searches.
“Search and rescue coordinators will take weather and tides into consideration, so if someone was in the water, they can estimate where the current and tides would take them,” Oldham said. “That determines where they will focus the search.”
Coast Guard units suspended the search at about 7 p.m. Tuesday, having found no further sign of Hamilton.
Oldham said a number of factors play into a Coast Guard decision to suspend a search.
“They will consider the temperature of the water, whether the individual was wearing a life jacket, what he was wearing, physical conditioning, those are all factors that play into the decision,” Oldham said.
A Sheriff’s search and rescue unit also searched near the mouth of the Elwha on Tuesday.
“Search and rescue was deployed, and our units used ATVs to search the shoreline, across the mouth of the Elwha River and along to Freshwater Bay,” King said.
“There were a lot of people on the beach. There were some friends and family near where the kayak was recovered, but most were citizens.”
King said the ground search concluded Tuesday afternoon.
Lower Elwha Police also assisted in the search, Oldham said.
Anyone with information concerning Hamilton’s disappearance can phone the Sheriff’s Office at 360-417-2259.
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Reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-406-0674 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
