The family of a teen boy who went boating with his family off the coast of California are waiting for answers after his death. While they were on the crabbing boat, it capsized, sending them all into the water. While one person was found alive in addition to the boy, there are still four people missing, including his brother and father.
Losing family members in a boating accident is hard enough. But, this family is no stranger to tragedy; the teen and his missing brother were survivors of a mass shooting in 2017.
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Law enforcement identified the teen.
On November 4, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office shared an update on Facebook sharing that it had found 17-year-old Johnny Phommathep II dead. The teen and five others: three adults and two other juveniles, were on a 21-foot Bayliner boat, on November 2. According to the police statement, the group were crabbing, and by nightfall, their boat was reported as overdue. One person was found alive at the scene off the coast of Bodega, California.
There wasn't much that could have been done for the men on the boat.
Sonoma County Sheriff spokesperson Misti Wood, spoke with KGO-TV about the boat accident and explained that the sole survivor was an 11-year-old boy who used a cooler to keep alive.
“He self-rescued. He was able to make it to shore and stayed the night on the shore. In the morning, he walked up and was found by passersby on Highway 1 and he survived. It’s really miraculous that he made it,” she said.
Mom of the dead teen, Tiffany Phommathep, spoke with the Los Angeles Times about the accident, sharing what she’d learned from the survivor. “The boat started taking on water so fast they didn’t even have time to radio for emergency service,” she explained. “They didn’t do anything else besides making sure everybody had a life jacket — and everybody had a life jacket.”
The teen and his family have been through another tragedy.
While speaking with the LA Times, Tiffany Phommathep explained that both of sons were survivors of the Rancho Tehama Reserve mass shooting in 2017. Johnny survived along with his younger brother, Jake, who is one of the missing. Tiffany took five bullets trying to protect her sons.
“It’s really hard because both my sons, Johnny Jr. and Jake, they survived the Rancho Tehama shooting,” Tiffany told the outlet. “We survived that and for them to come to their end like this….” she shared.
The odds of finding any other survivors are not high.
“The odds are not likely … but I would like to hold on to hope that maybe they reached shore somewhere,” Tiffany told the LA Times. She may hold out hope, but understands her younger son and her husband are likely not coming home. The family has seen enough tragedy for a lifetime.
“They’ve been through so much, both of my sons Johnny and Jake,” she told news outlet KTVU. “Already one tragedy. They made that one, just to come out here.”
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There is no way for the mother to fully recover from this tragedy.
“He wanted to get into college, he wanted to be a pharmacist,” Tiffany said of her son Johnny. “He was such a good kid.”
A friend of the Phommathep family set up a GoFundMe. The friend is also the secretary at Rancho Tehama Elementary, where they escaped the mass shooting.
