Mississippi native vanishes off North Carolina coast, search called off

Published 6:47 am Tuesday, July 9, 2019

National Park Service officials are looking for information that might help locate a man with Natchez ties who vanished last week at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina.

Several North Carolina news outlets report that the National Park Service is looking for any information about the whereabouts of John Carmichael Healy, who goes by Michael.

Healy disappeared while swimming July 3 at the National Park, park service officials said in a press release.

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A 1977 graduate of Trinity Episcopal School, Healy grew up in Natchez, Mississippi. He is the second oldest of four brothers, the son of the late Gail Healy and the late George W. Healy.

Michael Healy, 60, now lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, and was visiting Cape Hatteras last week.

The park service said Michael Healy reportedly started to swim on a boogie board at approximately 9 a.m. on July 3. The boogie board was later found in the water without Healy.

The U.S. Coast Guard mounted a more than 16-hour search that covered 43 nautical miles. The search was suspended on the evening of July 3 without any success. Since then, the National Park service has continued to monitor the shoreline.

The beaches of North Carolina have seen at least eight water-related deaths this year. Most of the deaths have been blamed on rip current, which pull swimmers away from the beaches.

The National Park Service says there was “a low risk” for dangerous rip currents at the time Healy vanished.