The families of two Florida teens are breathing a sigh of relief. Their girls went missing during a paddleboarding trip. Authorities scoured miles and miles of water by boat and air. But then, the girls were found more than 12 hours after being declared missing. A group of good Samaritans with a boat found them.
Thankfully, the girls were OK after their ordeal. Of course, they were shaken up by the experience, but so far there are no major medical issues.
The two girls, both 16, went missing on Monday, March 17, 2025, during a paddleboarding trip in Cedar Key, ABC Action News reported. Around 4 p.m., they were attempting to make their way back to the fishing pier, but started to drift on the inflatable paddleboard they were sharing.
The Levy County Sheriff’s Office received a call when the girls didn’t return. The sheriff’s office shared photos of the girls in a Facebook post about their disappearance. According to the post, “The LCSO Marine Unit, FWC and Coast Guard are searching by water and air.”
On Tuesday, March 18, it updated the post saying the girls were found “cold but otherwise healthy.” But they weren’t found by any of the authorities looking for them. It was a group of good Samaritans who decided to help with the search and rescue.
Russ Coon and his friends had plans to go fishing on Tuesday in Cedar Key. That morning, he got a call from one of his friends. “He said, ‘Plans have changed,’” Coon told News 6 Orlando. “We could still fish today, but we’re going to look for the girls that got lost.”
At 8 a.m., they boarded their boat with nothing more than intuition. “I have no good explanation other than I wanted to go to this place called Turtle Bay and look,” owner of the boat Alex Jeffries said. According to Jeffries, the girls “happened to be right there at the south point of Turtle Bay as soon as we got into it. We just happened to look over and see a paddleboard.”
About a half hour after they set out, they spotted the girls frantically waving their arms. “They were in good spirits for a bad situation,” Jeffries said. “They were laughing and stuff.” In his eyes, he and his friends were merely at the “right place at the right time.”
Deputies told News 6 Orlando that the girls were taken to the hospital with dehydration and mild hypothermia.
