‘He was like a hero': Missing Cape Cod fisherman and girlfriend found dead in sunken boat off Eastham
'He left and said he's not coming home until he filled his 30-pound bag,' Paul Arsenault said. 'So when I got a call from the harbormaster asking if I'd seen him, I didn't think nothing of it.'
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The harbormaster in Orleans reported the boat missing after seeing Paul Arsenault's truck at the marina on Tuesday, two days after the boat
left the harbor, the Coast Guard said.
Paul Arsenault said he believes the 30-foot, white-hulled vessel, which his brother had spent six years saving up to buy, got 'hooked up on a wreck that was on the bottom of the ocean.'
'It happened so fast that they were found in the wheelhouse — no life jackets, no distress call,' he said.
Arsenault had worked on boats all his life, his brother said. Owning his own boat was 'Shawn's dream' and Sunday's trip was 'only his third time out,' his brother said.
'He just got new radar, a fish finder — he was excited,' he said.
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The search began Tuesday morning. The boat was last believed to be about two miles off Chatham, according to a cellphone ping, the Coast Guard said.
Search crews were sent to both sides of Cape Cod because 'phone pings have a high degree of variability,' according to Coast Guard spokesman Quinn LeCain.
'The ping put them offshore in Chatham on the wrong side ... they were found off shore inside the bay,' LeCain said.
The Coast Guard issued an urgent marine information broadcast Tuesday morning to notify the public about the emergency, and launched an extensive search of the fishing area in Cape Cod Bay.
After a recreational fisherman spotted the missing boat on Wednesday, a Coast Guard cutter that had been searching overnight arrived at the scene within 30 minutes, and divers identified the boat.
'Everybody loved him,' Arsenault said of his brother. 'He was very loved in his community.'
Arsenault said his brother had a generous spirit, someone who always looked out for those in need in his neighborhood in Orleans.
'There was one gentleman with Parkinson's ... my brother would cook him dinner every night and walk it down to him,' Arsenault said. 'That's the kind of person he was.'
Witnesses told the Coast Guard they saw equipment thrown overboard shortly after Arsenault's boat left the dock,
Coast Guard Commander Cliff Graham said in a statement. The agency has not said what equipment might have been discarded.
'I don't know what they said he threw overboard,' Paul Arsenault said. 'I can't imagine. All that stuff means a lot to him.'
Arsenault and Daley had been dating for several months and were both experienced on boats, Paul Arsenault said.
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'They were absolutely nuts about each other,' he said.
What caused the boat to sink remains under investigation, the Coast Guard said.
'He's like a hero to me. I can't even fathom he's gone,' Paul Arsenault said.
Sarah Mesdjian can be reached at
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