On March 25, 1990, 19-year-old William "Billy" Hokanson, Jr. and his father, William "Hokey" Hokanson, Sr., disappeared while on a fishing expedition in the Atlantic Ocean. The father and son departed from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, on their vessel, the 'Sol-e-Mar', on March 22, 1990, for what was planned as a multi-day trip to catch flounder near Cape Cod.
At the time of his disappearance, Billy was described as 6'2" tall, weighing approximately 180 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. A 1989 graduate of the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational High School's marine industries program, he was a passionate fisherman who owned his own boat, the 'Hokey II'.
The last known contact with the men was on March 25, 1990. On that day, the United States Coast Guard received a brief, four-second distress call from Billy Hokanson. Tragically, this genuine call for help was followed almost immediately by a hoax distress call from another source, leading the Coast Guard to dismiss both as pranks. Consequently, no immediate rescue operation was launched. It was not until March 30, 1990, five days after the distress call, that the family, alarmed at their failure to return as scheduled, notified the Coast Guard that the 'Sol-e-Mar' was overdue.
Following the family's report, the Coast Guard initiated an extensive search, but it was suspended after three days without success. In April 1990, the sunken 'Sol-e-Mar' was discovered by a volunteer search crew off the coast of Martha's Vineyard. Despite the discovery of the vessel, neither William Jr. nor his father were ever found. The tragic incident prompted legislative changes, resulting in the Studds Act, which strengthened penalties for making hoax distress calls and led to upgrades in Coast Guard equipment and procedures to better locate the origin of transmissions. In 1996, human remains were dredged from the ocean in the vicinity of the sinking, but a comparison with the Hokansons' dental records proved inconclusive. Decades later, in 2014, the family officially had both father and son entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in the hope that DNA technology might one day lead to their identification.Last Seen: Mar 25, 1990
