STOCK ISLAND, Fla. – The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is searching for a St. Petersburg woman following a boat fire at approximately 12:10 a.m. Wednesday at the Peary Hotel & Marina on Stock Island that destroyed an approximately 70-foot Viking yacht.
Police have released the woman’s name and say she is presumed dead.
“The woman missing in the early Wednesday morning boat fire on Stock Island has been identified as 51-year-old Linda Vella of St. Petersburg, Florida,” said Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
Vella’s husband and son — Michael Kenneth Robson, 58, and Anthony Joseph Vella, 21, both of St. Petersburg, Florida — were airlifted to a hospital in Miami.
The St. Petersburg, Florida family was in the Florida Keys for lobster mini-season. Another family of four also on the boat escaped uninjured.
The boat was fully engulfed when Monroe County Fire Rescue crews arrived. They battled the blaze for approximately three hours.
The Sheriff’s Office Dive Team and TowBoat U.S. crews are assisting in the search for the woman while negotiating hazardous conditions where the vessel sank in the marina.
The state Fire Marshal’s Office and Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Detectives are investigating. The cause of the fire is part of that investigation.
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