SAUGUS — Keith Dustin is hoping for the best after the hours-long search for his 72-year-old father who failed to return from a kayaking trip in the Saugus River was called off Tuesday night, with plans to resume in the morning.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Massachusetts State Police, and multiple local emergency response agencies started searching for Craig Dustin Sr., of Saugus, late Tuesday afternoon, and called off the search around 9 p.m.
“My thought process, is I can’t, I want to stay positive, but he’s missing,” said 44-year-old Keith Dustin. “He’s out there somewhere and he’s in distress and he needs people’s help … You want to hope for the best, but right now we’re fearing for the worst. All of a sudden, they’re going to tell you they’ve stopped looking for your father. They stopped looking for my father right now. What are you supposed to do, you know?”
Craig Dustin was last seen at about 11 a.m. when he left a boat ramp near Fox Hill Yacht Club in Saugus.
Keith said his father was supposed to meet with his mother at about 2:30 p.m. — his mother called him and told him his father wasn’t there. So, Keith said he came down to where he knew his father parked at Saugus Boat Landing on Ballard Street, saw his vehicle was still there, and found that he was missing, which prompted him to call the Coast Guard.
“I knew something was wrong,” Keith said. “We called, probably 4:15, we called search and rescue … We called the Coast Guard at 4:30. I knew something was wrong. And they’ve been looking. They had multiple agencies out looking for him. They can’t find him.”
A response boat crew from Coast Guard Station Point Allerton, the Lynn harbormaster, Massachusetts State Police, Saugus Fire and Police departments, and the Revere Fire Department spent hours searching for Dustin.
Keith said his father retired in January, and has been doing a lot of active stuff — golfing, fishing, everything. Craig Dustin is reported to be in a red and yellow kayak. He is believed to be wearing a lifejacket and normally carries his cell phone in a waterproof case.
Tom Falasca, Saugus harbormaster and owner of Tom’s Bait & Tackle, which is next to the boat landing, said he knows Dustin as an avid fisherman. He said the weather conditions were not helpful for the search and that he was trying to focus on “wishful thinking.”
“You don’t want to see anyone lose their life,” Falasca said.
