Florida

Victims Identified in Deadly Weekend Boat Crash After Body Found on Miami Beach

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  • Two people were found dead on the rocks at the scene while the third was transported to the hospital as a trauma alert.

Officials have identified the three people killed in a weekend boat crash after the body of a woman who was onboard washed ashore Monday morning on Miami Beach.

Officers were at the scene near Ocean Drive and 1st Street near what appeared to be a decomposing body just along the edge of the water.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials confirmed the body, which was identified as 28-year-old Jennifer Munoz Cadavid of Fort Lauderdale, was related to the crash into the south side of the north jetty at Government cut on Saturday night.

Two people, 56-year-old Christopher Colgan and 38-year-old Elisaine Colgan of Pompano Beach, were pronounced dead at the scene while a third person, 37-year-old Troy Forte of Juno Beach, was transported to Ryder Trauma Center.

Investigators say it's too soon to say what caused the crash of the 32 foot center console Cape Horn boat or if anything illegal was onboard. Sunday would have been Elisaine Colgan's 39th birthday.

"It looked like a horrific scene. I don't know how anyone could survive that," said Mark "The Shark," a local charter boat captain. "It was totally upside down on the rocks. The top was up against the jetty. And the boat was totally out of the water."

The crash happened on the same channel where Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez and two other men were killed after their boat hit a jetty in September of 2016. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez penned a memo months later in 2017 calling on the Coast Guard to install more lights on the jetties to improve boaters' safety.

"Something has to be done there so we can light up those jetties a little bit better so that boaters know, hey, there is something there," Gimenez said. "I've been out there at night, you cannot see them."

After surveying dozens of people connected to the boating community, the Coast Guard eventually decided not to add any additional lights or safety features, concluding it would not improve safety, but instead could possibly create confusion between the existing aids and impair safe navigation.

Officials encourage other boaters to be extra cautious on the water, especially in this area.

"We encourage boaters to use their GPS and when navigating at night, try to take it slow and only go as fast as the conditions allow," said Ronald Washington of FWC.

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