UPDATE: The search ended on Sept. 1 with the recovery of a body.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said that a search for a swimmer reported missing about 7 p.m. Aug. 31 would continue the morning of Sept. 1.
The MCSO news release Sept. 1 described “a multi-agency search effort … for a swimmer who was swept away by the tide off Bean Point on Anna Maria Island yesterday.”
At about 7 p.m., witnesses reported seeing a man about 100 yards from the beach in the Gulf. He had been swimming with another man, who was rescued and brought to shore by people nearby.
A search was initiated by MCSO deputies and involved several boats, jet skis, paddleboards and aerial support from the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard, in a social media post, identified the missing swimmer as Abhigyan Patel, 20.
“So far, there have been no signs of the missing swimmer,” the news release said.
At press time for The Islander on Sept. 1, the search was ongoing with the MCSO, U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies working a grid search in the water and in the air.