Family offer $64,000 reward after son swept out to sea
The family of a missing boy swept out to sea have offered more than A$64,000 (US$50,000) to anyone who brings him home.
Arunay Pruthi, 12, his father and his eight-year-old brother were sitting on the sand at Cowell Ranch State Beach in Half Moon Bay in California when a rogue wave hit them and dragged them into the ocean on Monday.
The boy’s father and younger brother made it to shore but Arunay was dragged beneath the water and out to sea, KTVU-TV reported.
Tanur Pruthi, the boy’s father, said everyone else made it back but Arunay “just drifted away”.
Mr Pruthi said the family had taken advantage of the Martin Luther King holiday’s warm weather to go to the beach, not realising the danger of the surf which had waves as high as 14.6m.
The Coast Guard searched until 1am on Tuesday and again at day break, with crews looking for the boy about 16km from the shore to no avail.
By 12pm, the Coast Guard had called off the search.
Coast Guard member Howard Wright said the decision to suspend the search was a difficult one.
“The Coast Guard focuses on rescue activities to find a live person and we suspend the search when we are no longer confident that we’re going to be able to rescue the victim,” Mr Wright said.
Mr Pruthi and his family created a Facebook page seeking tips about their son’s whereabouts.
“We have to find him at least,” he said.
A GoFundMe page has also been created to aid in finding the boy.
with The Associated Press
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