Body of deckhand from Dulac who went missing off tug found on Texas beach, family says

Colin Campo, The Courier
·2 min read
Tugboat deckhand Thomas Phillips, 35, of Dulac, went missing last week while on a tugboat in the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana-Texas border. His body was found Tuesday on a Texas beach.
Tugboat deckhand Thomas Phillips, 35, of Dulac, went missing last week while on a tugboat in the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana-Texas border. His body was found Tuesday on a Texas beach.
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The body of a tugboat deckhand from Dulac who went missing last week in the Gulf of Mexico near the Louisiana-Texas border has been found, family members said Friday.

Becky Parfait, mother of 35-year-old Thomas Phillips, said she was called Tuesday morning by detectives from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office in Texas informing her that her son's body had been recovered.

Phillips' body was found on McFaddin Beach, about 16 miles west of the Louisiana border. Parfait said she was not told how her son's body was found but said it does bring her some sense of closure.

She was notified the morning after about 300 family members, friends and supporters gathered in Dulac for a candlelight vigil in Phillips' honor.

Joe Langley, a founding member of the Selucrey Sophisticats, said the marching club will dedicate Saturday's march in the Krewe of Mardi Gras parade in east Houma to Phillips. Club members at the vigil Monday night said Phillips, who was also an artist, had spray painted one of the club members' trademark white coats with a colorful image of the Tasmanian Devil character from the Looney Tunes cartoons. Phillips had even expressed an interest in marching with the club in a parade this year.

Joe Langley and Phil Cohn, members of the Selucrey Sophistocats Mardi Gras marching club, show a coat painted by Thomas Phillips, a Dulac native who went missing off a tugboat last week off Texas near the Louisiana border. Langley and Cohn were attending a candlelight vigil Monday night for Phillips, whose body was found the next morning.
Joe Langley and Phil Cohn, members of the Selucrey Sophistocats Mardi Gras marching club, show a coat painted by Thomas Phillips, a Dulac native who went missing off a tugboat last week off Texas near the Louisiana border. Langley and Cohn were attending a candlelight vigil Monday night for Phillips, whose body was found the next morning.

Phillips was last seen about 10 p.m. Feb. 5 and was noticed missing the next morning when he was supposed to transfer off the Smith Invader near the Texas-Louisiana border, according to the Coast Guard in Houston. The Coast Guard joined other agencies in a 23-hour search that covered 206 square miles by boat and helicopter before calling an end to the operation.

The Smith Invader, an 89-foot tug, is listed among boats owned by Smith Marine Towing, a Morgan City-based company that does work in the offshore oilfield as well as in dredging, barge towing, cargo hauling and other marine operations.

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Phillips was last seen while the tug was a mile south of the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge, where the beach is located, authorities said.

The United Cajun Navy continued the search until it was informed by the family that Phillips' body had been found.

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Body of tugboat deckhand from Dulac found on Texas beach, family says