The pregnant wife of a missing boater has asked the public to stop donating to a GoFundme page due to “drama and rumours” surrounding the search for her husband.
Tyler Doyle, 22, hasn’t been seen since his boat reportedly began taking on water during a duck hunting trip with a friend off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on 26 January.
Authorities said on 27 January that the second person on the boat was rescued a few hours after the vessel had made an emergency call.
Depsite extensive air and sea searches by the US Coastguard, search and rescue teams, volunteers, several police and sheriff’s departments and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, no trace of Mr Doyle has been found.
The organiser of a GoFundme page that has raised more than $30,000 for his wife Lakelyn Doyle posted an update on Friday calling for the public to stop making donations.
“Due to the rumors and everything going around, his wife, Lakelyn, wants me to stop all donations to this GoFundme. She rather go without, then to deal with drama and rumors while she’s actively searching for her missing husband,” Hannah Faulk wrote.
“Thanks again for all the donations, but as a women 30 weeks pregnant she can’t handle everyone’s opinion and stress on her body for the baby’s sake.”
The post did not specify what the rumours were, but Mr Tyler’s family have previously hit out at allegations being made on social media raising questions about the circumstances of his disappearance.
Mother Linda Doyle told WBTW that speculation about the case had brought more pain to the devastated family.
His brother Reed Doyle wrote on Facebook that the “lying bulls***” was “bringing everyone down”.
“I’m done dealing with people that want to start rumors when they don’t even know him, don’t know what we’ve had to be put through this past week,” he wrote.
Greg Lucas, a South Carolina Department of Natural Resources spokesman, told WTBW that authorities have “no reason to believe at this time that Tyler Doyle is anywhere but in the water”.
Dive teams initially searched for Mr Doyle near the Little River jetties at North Myrtle Beach.
They then shifted the search north to Brunswick County due to ocean and current conditions.
The Wings of Hope Search and Rescue, a specialist aerial and underwater search team from Wisconsin, joined the operation on 7 February using boats equipped with underwater sonar and 3-D imaging, cadaver dogs and drones, authorities said.
The search for Mr Doyle was continuing, according to the GoFundme account.
The baffling disappearance has attracted intense interest on social media.
Several Facebook pages aiming to coordinate search efforts have sprung up. One of them, the Help find Tyler Doyle Official Support Group, has more than 87,000 members.
Mr Doyle’s family asked the community for “prayers during this time” in a brief statement as the search reached the two week mark on Thursday.
Mr Doyle and his wife are expecting a baby girl that they’ve already named Paisley Grace.
