A fishing adventure turned tragic for a family when disaster struck one of the two Sitka boats they chartered over the Memorial Day weekend, leaving three people dead and two missing despite a 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 a week after the 30-foot aluminum boat was found partially submerged off an island near Sitka.
Authorities on May 29 suspended their search after more than 20 hours, covering 825 square miles.
The sisters’ 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 June 1. “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 Sitka Sound won out.
“My sisters, I think, reluctantly agreed,” Michael Tyau said.
He and his wife flew from Los Angeles to Alaska with Brandi Tyau, 56, and Solis, 61. They met up with their parents, sister Danielle Agcaoili, 53, and her husband, 57-year-old Maury Agcaoili, all Hawaii residents.
The whole family stayed in a lodge owned by Kingfisher Charters in Sitka.
The boats the Tyau clan chartered, named the Pockets and the Awakin, set out May 26 amid rough conditions. Michael Tyau said his sisters and wife spent the day’s voyage seasick in the two boats’ cabins and skipped going out to fish the next day so that they could recover on land.
On May 28, their last vacation day before Memorial Day flights home, the women rejoined the boats. Danielle Agcaoili “didn’t want to let anybody down,” Michael Tyau recalled through tears.
The boat captains opted for different fishing spots. Aboard the Pockets, Michael Tyau said he “in no way felt in jeopardy, like this wasn’t safe for us to fish in.”
The Pockets returned to the lodge the evening of May 28, but the family began worrying when Brandi Tyau, Danielle Agcaoili, Maury Agcaoili and Solis aboard the Awakin didn’t respond to text messages and never arrived for dinner.
The Awakin hadn’t come back, the charter company told Michael Tyau, and they had lost radio contact with the captain, 32-year-old Morgan Robidou.
Robidou had been fishing for several years, according to posts and comments on his social media pages.
He was “the nicest, quietest, friendliest young fellow you’ve ever seen,” said Thad Poulson, editor of the Daily Sitka Sentinel newspaper, where Robidou once worked as a press operator.
What happened aboard the Awakin remains unclear. Efforts to recover the vessel have been hampered by rough seas and strong winds. Hanson Maritime of Sitka is working to retrieve the boat.
The bodies of Brandi Tyau and Danielle Agcaoili were found inside the cabin. Maury Agcaoili’s body was discovered near the boat. Solis and Robidou were still missing as of June 2.
The boat was last seen on the water the afternoon of May 28 near Sitka, authorities said. At about 7 p.m. that evening, the first searchers, a Coast Guard Air Station Sitka helicopter crew, sighted the bow section of the missing boat extending above the water near Low Island, about 10 miles west of Sitka near Cape Edgecumbe.
In addition to the U.S. Coast Guard, which dispatched a C-130 aircraft from Kodiak, searchers included the Sitka Fire Department dive team and search and rescue team, NOAA law enforcement, Alaska State Troopers and good Samaritan vessels.
Coast Guard investigators are working to determine the timeline and cause of the incident.
The day the boat went missing, there was a small craft advisory in the area where the boat was found, warning mariners of roughly 17 mph winds and 10-foot seas with rain during the day and slightly stronger winds and similarly high seas later in the day, said Pete Boyd, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
In addition to potentially rough seas and high winds, the area features rocks that can seemingly rise even from deep water, posing hazards to boats.
The boat had an emergency beacon onboard — not a requirement for charter fishing boats of that size and passenger capacity — but it didn’t appear to have been used, according to the Coast Guard.
Kingfisher Charters declined to respond to questions outside a statement saying the company is “devastated by the loss of the guests and captain of the Awakin” and is fully cooperating with an investigation it hopes “furnishes answers to the questions as to how it occurred.”
Brandi Tyau and Solis leave behind one son together, as well as Solis’ three sons from a previous relationship. The Agcaoilis have two children, one of whom just graduated from high school.
The family’s vacation was meant for them to enjoy a holiday weekend away and bridge the gap between their homes in Hawaii and Los Angeles.
“I don’t think all eight of us have been together in over 10 years,” Michael Tyau said.
Now, only four are left.
Shannon Haugland of the Sitka Sentinel contributed to this report.
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