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A father and son vanish while on a fishing expedition in the Atlantic Ocean
Our cold case database is in danger of no longer being maintained.
William "Billy" Hokanson Jr and his father, William "Hokey" Hokanson Sr, were last seen boarding their boat, the Sol-e-Mar on the shore of Fairhaven, MA on March 25, 1990. They planned to go for a fishing expedition on the Atlantic Ocean, but shortly after, the U.S. Coast Guard received a 4 second long distress call from Billy. Unfortunately, no one heard the call, so they did not receive the help they desperately needed.
On March 30, 1990, Mrs. Hokanson notified the U.S. Coast Guard that her husband, son, and two dogs they took with them have not returned from their fishing trip. At this point, the search for Billy and William, officially began. Authorities searched the Atlantic Ocean for three days before suspending it without finding anything. In April of 1990, a volunteer search crew found the Sol-e-Mar sunken in the Atlantic Ocean, but they were unable to find any sign if Billy or William.
In 1996, six years after Billy and William vanished at sea, human remains were dredged out of the Atlantic Ocean by a fisherman. Both men's dental records were compared with the unidentified remains, but results were inconclusive. In 2014, 24 years after Billy and William were last seen, they were officially reported missing by family members, with hopes that DNA and being added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) may bring them home. According to Mrs. Hokanson, they simply never considered the two men to be missing persons, until 2014.
At the time of his disappearance in 1990, Billy was described as a 19 year old caucasian man with brown hair and brown eyes. He was 6'2" tall and weighed approximately 180 lbs. If you have any information regarding Billy's disappearance or his whereabouts, please contact the Massachusetts State Police at (508) 997-0711.
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