Missing Fishermen’s Family Seeks Help From Rio—Exclusive, By Colin Maximin

A cousin of Manchester United and England star Rio Ferdinand missing since last June after setting off on a fishing expedition in the Carribean is believed to be held by Venezualan authorities.

Fitz John, 64, captain of the vessel Hossanah and fellow crew members Cameron Henry and Francis Dusauzay, are presumed dead.

The pair, all experienced fishermen, set off on the morning of June 10 with just a few loaves and some water.

They were last heard from a day later when one member of the party made a mobile phone call to a family member.
Since then the Carribean Marine Police and French authorities have conducted aerial and sea searches without success.

But according to a local government source in the village of Soufriere where the men come from the trio were mistaken for refugees and are being held in Venezuela.

He said “We have heard that the men may have been found by a large Vessel and they may have thought they were refugees fleeing.

“They were picked up and questioned and due to a language barrier they were handed over to the authorities in the South American country. We are looking into this possibility”.

Thomas Ferdinand, who is co-ordinating the search said the families of the missing men had written to Rio asking for his help in locating the fishermen.

He said “We have decided to write to our cousin in England, Rio Ferdinand and hope that he may be able to look into this for us and be able to help us since our authorities here are unable to or unwilling to check this out.

“We are family from the same area of Baron’s drive. We consider Rio to be one of us as well since all our family come from the area of Baron’s Drive.

“We are so desperate we will do anything to get to the bottom of this.

A spokesperson from Manchester United admitted that a letter had been received and that the footballer is looking into it.

Thomas said the families had been forced to turn to Rio after getting nowhere with local and Venezuelan authorities.

“We have written to our local MP and the Venezuelan embassy but to no avail.

“No one seems willing to tell us the truth. We need to know what is going on.

We have spoken to all the officials including the Prime minister.

“We need to know or at least have our calls and letters answered to so we will have an idea as to what to do and our next step but we are not hearing anything.

A family member of Fitz John said she was devastated and the loss had hit the missing men’s families.

“They depended on their partners for help in maintaining them and it has not been easy since this happened.

“They are umemployed and their partners have always taken care of all the bills. This has come as a big loss to them as they have no income coming in apart from the men’s income”

“They always made sure that their families were taken care of from their fishermen’s salary and now this has happened”

Kai Wulf of the Soufriere Marine Management Authority (SMMA) says the families of the fishermen are devastated.
He explained that these men are all the breadwinners in their families.

This means that things are going to be hard on them all.

The mood of the recently held Fishermanan’s Feast was dampened by this loss of comrades.

One woman at the event donated $2,000 to the distraught families. There are also several ongoing fundraisers.

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