Extended Family Searches For Lost Man

SEKIU, Clallam County - Ted Coughlin gripped the single piece of plastic foam tightly in his hand, holding fast to the only thing he could find on this rocky coast that might offer a clue to the whereabouts of his brother.

Coughlin, three of his brothers and other family members are here searching the kelp beds, beaches and rocky shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca for Ray Coughlin, 53, of Fenton, Mich. He is believed to have crashed in these waters in a small plane Oct. 3.

Ray Coughlin, who was building a home in Alaska, was flying alone in his single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza from Haines, Alaska, to visit a friend in Seattle when he may have run out of gas and crashed in the water. But even that is a mystery.

Coughlin didn't file a flight plan when he left Alaska, and made no radio contacts along his route. When he failed to arrive at a class reunion in Michigan, his family notified state troopers in Alaska. But it was 10 days before anyone even knew he was missing.

Coughlin's reputation as a survivor who could work his way out of most any scrape has had many in his family holding out hope.

This, after all, is a guy with scars on one side of his neck from the claws of a bear, and scars on the other from stitching his own neck following a chainsaw accident.

"He's a fighter," said his oldest brother, Herman, also in Sekiu for the search. "We believe he'd keep fighting until the moment he dies. If anyone could live through this it's him."

But the few traces of Coughlin so far include a gas tank that washed up on a beach at a resort near Sekiu more than two weeks ago. Coughlin's brother Don, also here for the search, has identified the gas tank for authorities as one he repaired and painted for his brother's Beechcraft.

The gas tank appears to have ripped off the plane, and is damaged on the bottom, not the front end. Family members think that means Coughlin attempted an emergency water landing.

The U.S. Coast Guard has searched the area twice by plane but has so far turned up nothing.

The chunk of plastic foam that Ted Coughlin found yesterday turned out to be a piece of an ice chest, and not linked to the crash.

Every day the brothers comb the coast. They've hired charter boats, had friends fly the area in planes, and have spent hours walking the shore.

At first they hoped to find their brother alive. Now they will be happy even to know how and where he died.

They have set up a command center for the search at the resort where the gas tank was found.

The owner of Chito Beach Resort, Bob Ness, is allowing the relatives to stay for free. Ness found the gas tank, and he thinks the Coast Guard has not pursued the search vigorously enough.

Coast Guard Capt. Bill Peterson, chief of search and rescue in the area, said everything has been done that could be, given how few clues there have been to go on.

The Coast Guard even conducted a search in the San Juan Islands last Saturday at the Coughlins' request, 70 miles from the area where the gas tank was found. Psychics had called Ray's sisters in Michigan to say they believed he was on a rocky beach but could not reach anyone, sparking the request for another search.

Coast Guard personnel continue to scan the coast and water whenever traveling the area between Sekiu and Neah Bay. But their official search for Coughlin has been called off.

The water along the Strait of Juan de Fuca is shallow by the shore, but depths drop sharply to about 600 feet about a quarter-mile offshore.

Coughlin's brother Ted, of Haines, wept as he walked the rocks yesterday. It was his third straight day of searching. Other family members walked the beach nearby, with binoculars slung around their necks.

Ray Coughlin has three grown children, and was retired from his job as a tool and die journeyman in Flint, Mich. He has 13 brothers and sisters and an extended family that includes 600 people. His wife, Vicki, arrived at the resort early today.

"My first feeling was I didn't want her here," said Herman Coughlin. "But there's only one way she is going to believe he is not alive, and that's to be here."

The steep rock walls that line part of the coast, the 50-degree water, and rough tides may convince her that her husband could not have survived, Herman said.

Asked how long they would keep looking, the brothers looked at each other.

It was Herman who finally answered: "Until Vicki says we can go home."