WILMINGTON — The family of a missing swimmer is dealing with unanswered questions and grief after their loved one, 39-year-old Jared Wheeler, disappeared from the ocean on Figure Eight Island over Memorial Day weekend. Authorities called off his search on Monday, one day after the incident.
“It is just an absolute mystery,” Ronald Sinclair, Wheeler’s father-in-law who also lives in Wilmington, told Port City Daily via phone on Tuesday.
Sinclair confirmed that Wheeler was last seen on Sunday, May 24, swimming by a private beach access on Figure Eight Island. He was body surfing in shallow water while a group of family and friends watched.
Lt. Jerry Brewer, the spokesperson for the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, said their team arrived on the scene upon Wheeler’s wife calling 911.
“His wife saw him 50 yards off the beach and then she didn’t see him,” Brewer explained.
“There were no signs of a struggle,” Sinclair described.
A 24-hour search ensued from the sheriff’s office and U.S. Coast Guard. Sinclair and other boaters joined the efforts to look for Wheeler to no avail.
“It’s almost certainly a recovery,” Sinclair said, hoping the family locates Wheeler so they can have more insight into what took place. “It was so sudden and with such a strong swimmer, athletic person, that knew how to be in the ocean, it makes you wonder.”
A California native living in Los Angeles, Wheeler was visiting the island for the long holiday weekend with his wife and daughter and was supposed to travel home Tuesday. Sinclair described how Wheeler played D1 Soccer at University of California Santa Cruz, had a passion for basketball, and was experienced in the water.
“He’s been in oceans in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Caribbean Sea, various places in Europe,” Sinclair said. “So he was not a novice ocean swimmer, he was very experienced.”
U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Lt. Dustin Stackhouse told Port City Daily there was a rip current and moderate waves on Sunday when Wheeler disappeared. The Coast Guard arrived from the nearby Wrightsville Beach Station shortly after the incident was reported, a routine occurrence for a water search and rescue.
During a course of 24 hours, they covered 174 nautical miles prior to suspending the search. Before a suspension takes place, the U.S. Coast Guard considers factors such as weather, survivability of a person, fitness level, time spent in the area, saturating the search area with different search assets, along with the amount of drift the environment would have had moving a person. Several levels of briefing, up to head of command, also need to occur before a suspension is decided upon.
“We were able to saturate the area very well for our standards and feel that we did a very very detailed search. If somebody was there we would have found them,” Stackhouse said.
Once there is a lack of reasonable confidence of a rescue the Coast Guard ceases their search, stepping down and allowing local law enforcement to take the lead.
“We search until we feel satisfied that if something was there we would have found it on the surface,” Stackhouse confirmed.
The New Hanover County Sheriff’s Officer’s Marine Unit and the Coast Guard called off the search within an hour of one another on Monday, May 25.
“If anybody has any information, they can contact us,” Brewer said.
Wheeler’s family extended gratitude to the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the community at large for their collaboration.
“I’m very proud of my hometown, how they came together to help look for Jared,” Sinclar said.
Prior to his disappearance Wheeler was a construction management executive who had previously worked on the Clippers Arena in L.A. and was most recently working on facilities for the 2028 Olympics, to be held in the City of Angels. Sinclair added that Wheeler was “liked by everybody,” a wonderful husband and father, and a headturner.
“He would get up and leave a group of adults enjoying themselves to go play with his daughter. He was that kind of guy,” Sinclair said.
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