31 Year Old Shawn Waters Missing in Central Florida (Merritt Island) Since 11/23/08 (Update: Body Recovered)
31 year old Shawn Waters has been missing since Sunday evening, November 23, 
2008 when he went fishing in a ganoe, a canoe with an outboard motor, near Merritt Island on Sunday evening. Waters’ truck was found near the entrance to the Pine Island conservation area on Merritt Island and Waters’ boat was found Monday afternoon at Manatee Cove, which is nearly a mile south of Pine Island. The Coast Guard has suspended its search for a missing Brevard County fisherman, Shawn Waters. It is reported that Waters was wearing a life jacket.
Waters’ truck was found near the entrance to the Pine Island conservation area on Merritt Island where he usually parks for fishing trips.
Deputies said Waters’ boat was found Monday afternoon at Manatee Cove, which is nearly a mile south of Pine Island. A resident found the overturned boat, and called authorities after watching Eyewitness News at 11, Tuesday night.
The Coast Guard had been using a helicopter and two boats to conduct the search. A helicopter from Patrick Air Force Base and members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and deputies from the Brevard County Sheriff’s office also helped.
“It is always a tough decision to suspend a search,” said Capt. Paul Thomas of the Coast Guard. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”
Boater finds missing angler’s watercraft
Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Linda Moros said authorities concentrated their search on the area where the boat was found capsized with nothing in it just north of Manatee Cove, about 110 yards off an island in the Pine Island Conservation Area on Merritt Island.
Waters went fishing there Sunday in his flat-bottomed, light-blue “Gheenoe” and failed to return.
A Gheenoe is a flat-bottomed boat similar to a canoe that is equipped with an outboard motor.
The Gheenoe was found overturned by a fisherman around 4 p.m. Monday. The fisherman said he realized the boat he found and took home might belong to Waters after he saw reports about efforts to locate the missing boater on television news, Moros said.
EquuSearch To Help Search For Missing Boater
Officials with Texas EquuSearch said the search and recovery group planned to help look for missing boater Sean Waters in Brevard County Sunday.
Waters went fishing last weekend in Pine Island Conservation Area, and has not been seen since.
Crews spent hours searching the area in the last week looking for Waters, and found his boat overturned and abandoned.
UPDATE I: Body discovered in Manatee Cove identified
The body discovered near Manatee Cove has been identified as Jonathan Shawn Evans Waters, the boater who was reported missing more than a week ago in the Indian River in Merritt Island.
Water’s body was found near a camp where he had been before he went missing. He was found at 1 p.m. today floating face down and 10 feet away from the shoreline.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating the incident as a boating accident. There are no signs of foul play.
[...] Anthony. TES is back in Florida to search for missing 31 year old Shawn Walters. Walters has been missing since Sunday, November 23, 2008 when he was last seen fishing near Merritt Island. Texas Equusearch moved in after Brevard County [...]
Pingback by Texas EquuSearch to Return to Central Florida, Merritt Island … To Search for Missing Shawn Waters | Scared Monkeys | November 30, 2008
I have never met Shawn Waters, but he will be missed and remembered forever because I work with his mother, Debbie Daughtry. Debbie is a beautiful person who is well loved in Columbia, South Carolina. We at the South Carolina System Office will circle her with love, hope, understanding,and patience.
Barbara
Comment by Barbara C. Benbow | December 9, 2008