Community stunned as dive teams search for missing Brick man Derek Narby
As dive teams search to find Derek Narby, the 21-year old Brick man who's been missing since his family's boat capsized Thursday, the community where he lives and works is shaken up.
"This is a nightmare," said Brandan Arms, the owner of Lenny's Colonial Ranch Market in Point Pleasant Beach where Narby has worked for the past three years on and off between college courses.
Arms has hung a fisherman's lantern in his market along with a painting that reads 'Prayers for Derek, We Love You.'
"We hung it so Derek can find his way home. He was just the coolest. He was a happy kid who loved to fish, he loved the Yankees, he got along with everybody," Arms said.
Search operations for Narby - who was identified Monday as the missing victim - resumed Tuesday morning, but no new details on the search are available at this time, Philip Curry, spokesperson for New Jersey State Police, said.
Sean McCulley, who works at Jersey Hooker Outfitters, a local bait and tackle shop in Brick, said he knows the family. Narby's father, David Narby, who frequented the tackle shop, is an experienced boat captain who works in the Merchant Marines, McCulley said.
“This hit very close to home," McCulley said. "They are a really nice family. A lot of us are in shock, just stunned."
McCulley said David would come in, often with one or both of his sons, and buy tackle such as ballyhoo to take offshore fishing for tuna on his AquaSport called Kaboom.
McCulley said he doesn’t know what happened in those last moments before the Kaboom hit the north jetty of the Manasquan Inlet, but boats had made the inlet an hour before that tragic moment as seas were beginning to worsen from Hurricane Lee.
“There’s just so much misinformation going around right now about what happened or what they were doing from people who don’t have all the facts,” McCulley said. “It’s very unfortunate what happened and it’s very sad.”
Curry of the State Police said the vessel broke up into pieces, with parts of the boat washing ashore in Seaside Heights.
Divers from the State Police T.E.A.M.S. Unit as well as sonar scans are being used in the search effort, Curry said.
On Thursday night, the Coast Guard received a report from local police that three people were in the water after the boat capsized around 8 p.m. Area first responders recovered two of the victims, said Reaves, an agency spokesperson.
Manasquan Mayor Edward Donovan said the call first came in around 8:15 Thursday night, after the 31-foot boat got hit by a wave while trying to enter the inlet and capsized.
The water was at the top of the high tide at the time the boat was trying to make the inlet, according NJ Tides.
The Coast Guard suspended its search late Friday evening, a spokesperson said, but dive teams have resumed their efforts.
On the crowd funding platform, GoFundMe, Joseph Walsh-Kistner is hoping to raise money for his missing friend’s family.
“I’ve never done one of these before, but Derek Narby was such a beautiful and positive soul who had an unparalleled love for life, and the last anyone would expect to be taken so soon,” Walsh-Kistner wrote. “Any amount would mean the world and (be) very appreciated”.
He said the donations would go directly to the family to help “get through these dark times.”
Jenna Calderón covers breaking news and cold cases in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Before coming to the Press, she covered The Queen City for Cincinnati Magazine in Ohio. Contact her at 330-590-3903; jcalderon@gannettnj.com
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Dive teams search Manasquan Inlet for Derek Narby Brick NJ
