Coast Guard Says On-Board Explosion Destroyed Boat

After conducting a five-month investigation into the sinking of a cabin cruiser that left three people dead, the U.S. Coast Guard concluded that the vessel was most likely destroyed by an on-board explosion.

Robert Reid, 84, Thelma Reid, 75, and Charles Reid, 61, apparently drowned after their boat, the Lucky R was destroyed last Nov. 23 off Santa Catalina. The bodies of Robert and Thelma Reid, both of Hemet, were found floating with the wreckage, but the body of Charles Reid, who was from Long Beach, was never recovered.

Mary Ann Campbell of Huntington Beach said she does not believe the explosion explanation and believes that Coast Guard officials did a “poor job of investigating” the accident that killed her parents and brother.

Campbell said she interviewed those involved in the case and believes that the Lucky R was demolished by a collision with another vessel, possibly a submarine.

U.S. Coast Guard Capt. James C. Card, who headed the investigation, did not rule out the possibility of a collision but said he “had difficulty visualizing how the extent of destruction to the hull could have occurred in a collision scenario.”