LEVY COUNTY, Fla. – A pair of Florida teens were reported missing on Monday afternoon after they were last spotted aboard a paddle board, according to the Levy County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators said the girls hadn’t returned from a “paddle board excursion” in Cedar Key on Monday, and they had last been seen around 4 p.m. paddling toward Cedar Key from Atsena Otie Key.
“The girls were sharing a black-and-white paddle board,” a release reads.
Their disappearance sparked a massive search by the sheriff’s office, the FWC, and the Coast Guard, with law enforcement officers searching by air and water.
But on Tuesday, deputies finally announced that the girls had been located, “cold but otherwise healthy.”
While authorities were combing a wide swath of water for many hours during the girls’ disappearance, it was a few fishing buddies who ended up spotting them first.
Russ Coon of Clermont had planned on fishing with his friends in Cedar Key. Then, he got a phone call Tuesday morning from one of those friends.
“He said, ‘Plans have changed,’” Coon recounted to News 6. “We could still fish today, but we’re going to look for the girls that got lost.”
The friends got the boat in the water at 8 a.m., armed with a plan based on a gut feeling.
“I have no good explanation other than I wanted to go to this place called Turtle Bay and look,” said Alex Jeffries, whose boat they took out. “(The girls) happened to be right there at the south point of Turtle Bay as soon as we got into it. We just happened to look over and see a paddle board.”
A half-hour after they first set out on their mission, they spotted the two girls, who were waving their arms frantically.
“They were in good spirits for a bad situation,” Jeffries said. “They were laughing and stuff.”
With their search over at 8:30 a.m., the guys spent the rest of the day celebrating and recounting the story for reporters across the country.
“Right place at the right time is what it was,” Jeffries said.
Meanwhile, deputies told News 6 that the girls — identified as Avery Bryan and Eva Aponte — were taken to the hospital for dehydration and mild hypothermia.
Per the sheriff’s office, the girls are expected to release a statement through the sheriff’s office.
No additional information has been provided at this time.
