COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Dan Potter has been missing for several days and his family is desperate to find him.
The 60-year-old went out on his boat on Saturday and hasn’t been seen since.
“It’s like a bad dream, a nightmare,” said Justine Potter, Dan’s wife. “My husband goes out on the boat every night, he goes fishing he catches a couple bass, he comes home.”
But on Saturday, the couple’s 14-year-old daughter called her mother while she was at work, saying Potter hadn’t returned, even though he’d been gone for hours.
Since then, police and fire rescue teams have searched by land, in the water and from the sky, but without any luck. Only Potter’s flip flops, one oar and some materials from the boat have been found.
“Where is he?! It’s awful, it’s absolutely awful,” said Justine Potter. “Nothing I can even imagine. It’s a dream, a nightmare I haven’t come out of yet.”
On Tuesday, a non-profit called the Guardians for the Missing came out to lend their support, slowly gliding through the water, using sonar technology to scan the depths.
“When you’re the person you feel very helpless,” said Shannon Marley with Guardians for the Missing. “You don’t know what to do, you think everyone should be out looking for your person because they’re you’re special someone so at least it gives the family the sense that people are looking and doing what they can.”
Meanwhile, Potter’s family is just holding out hope that he’ll be brought back to them, sooner rather than later.
His car, phone and wallet are all still at home, which family members said is something he always did when he’d go out on the water.
Justine Potter said her husband has had medical issues before, especially with his heart, and she thinks it is possible he may have had a medical episode.
Anyone with information that could help is urged to reach out to Coconut Creek police.