By STEFANIE DAZIO and BECKY BOHRER
JUNEAU, Alaska — An Alaska fishing adventure became a nightmare for a family of eight — including a couple from Canoga Park — when disaster struck one of the two boats they chartered over the Memorial Day weekend, leaving three people dead and two more missing despite a desperate search over hundreds of square miles of ocean.
The tragedy tore the Tyau family apart: Two sisters and one of their husbands are dead, while the other’s partner and the boat captain remain missing off southeast Alaska four days after the boat was found partially submerged off an island.
Authorities suspended a more than 20-hour search covering 825 square miles on Monday and have no plans to resume it.
The women’s parents, older brother, and sister-in-law were on the other charter boat as part of a three-day trip to a destination fishery known for king salmon and groundfish.
The sisters and their sister-in-law didn’t like fishing but joined the vacation to spend more time with a family that was usually split between Hawaii and Los Angeles.
“It was just supposed to be a simple family get-together for eight of us, since we haven’t been together in the same spot for so long,” Michael Tyau, the older brother, told The Associated Press on Thursday. “For it to turn out like this is really devastating.”
The Tyau siblings — Michael, Brandi and Danielle — grew up fishing in Hawaii with their parents. Michael Tyau said his sisters hated being cold and wet but would endure it for their water-loving parents and later their partners.
Brandi Tyau’s longtime partner, Robert Solis — a Navy diver-turned-private investigator who was stationed in Hawaii when they met decades ago — was someone for whom “ the ocean really was his life,” one of Solis’ brothers said.
So when the Tyau siblings’ mother suggested a family trip last year, a fishing vacation in the Sitka Sound won out.
“My sisters, I think, reluctantly agreed,”…
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