SIXTH BODY RECOVERED IDENTIFIED AS PITRE

FROM THE ADVOCATE

Divers searching the wreckage of the Seacor Power in the Gulf of Mexico have recovered the body of a sixth crewman, the Lafourche Parish coroner said late Tuesday.
He was 31-year-old Quinon Pitre of the St. Mary Parish community of Franklin, said the coroner, Dr. John King.
Pitre has been identified as a resident of Pitreville near Eunice.
Misty Pitre, an older sister of Quinon, spoke on the phone on April 15 about her brother.
“He works as surveyor for Fugro out of Lafayette, and the crew had just left the port,” she said.
Pitre is the son of the late Ellis and Missy Pitre of Pitreville.
Pitre is the nephew of Kenneth Pitre of Eunice.
Pitre’s cause of death wasn’t immediately available.
Pitre was one of 19 crew members aboard the Seacor Power lift boat when it capsized about 4:30 p.m. on April 13 after it was hit by a sudden squall packing hurricane-force winds and creating destructive waves roughly seven miles south of Lafourche. Rescuers saved six crewmen that day, but the bodies of a half-dozen others have since been recovered.
The other crew members who have been confirmed dead are Capt. David Ledet, 63, of Thibodaux; Ernest Williams, 69, of Arnaudville; Anthony Hartford, 53, of New Orleans; James “Tracy” Wallingsford, 55, of the northeast village of Gilbert; and Lawrence Warren, 36, of the Jefferson Parish community of Terrytown.
As of Tuesday, seven remained unaccounted for: Jay Guevara, Dylan Daspit, Gregory Walcott, Chaz Morales, Jason Krell, Darren Encalade and Cooper Rozands.
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search by air and sea for more survivors at sunset Monday, seven days into the efforts. But the founder of the United Cajun Navy said Tuesday that private divers working for the owner of the doomed Seacor Power were continuing to comb through the jack-up boat.
The civilian rescue fleet’s founder also said his group had two seaplanes in the air searching across a wide area around the Seacor Power, with the missing crewmen’s relatives holding out hope for more survivors.