Less than 15 hours after the U.S. Coast Guard called off its search for a missing Biloxi shrimper, a body was discovered by paddleboarders and later identified as the person authorities were searching for.
Richard Kopszywa, 75, was reported missing Sunday morning after his wife did not hear from him following a fishing trip. The USCG subsequently discovered Kopszywa’s shrimp boat abandoned about five miles off the Biloxi coast and near the western tip of Deer Island.
Officials spent the majority of Sunday and Monday scanning over 1,000 nautical square miles using three boats, an airplane, and a helicopter. To no avail, the search was called off Monday night.
On Tuesday around 10 a.m., the paddleboarders came across the body before informing law enforcement. At first, the Biloxi Police Department did not believe the body to be that of Kopsywa but informed WLOX on Tuesday afternoon that the county coroner had confirmed it to be Kopsywa.
The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources and Gulf Islands National Seashore aided in the search.
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