Eighteen-year-old Sayer Almeida Tuzon, a young man from Sitka, Alaska, was last seen on January 9, 2024, during a boating trip in the waters near Khaz Point and Khaz Bay, roughly 40 miles northwest of Sitka. Tuzon, who was also known as Sare, had been aboard a 26-foot vessel with Darren Borbridge and three other people as the group returned from a hunting trip on Chichagof Island. During the afternoon, the vessel overturned in rough, bitterly cold seas. A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew from Air Station Sitka reached the area as daylight was fading and found the partially submerged boat being battered by large swells. A rescue swimmer entered the water and helped hoist three survivors from the overturned hull, but Tuzon and Borbridge could not be brought out with them. The incident transformed what had begun as a trip into the remote Southeast Alaska wilderness into an urgent maritime search-and-rescue operation, leaving two families waiting for answers under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
The search continued the following morning, when members of Sitka Dive Rescue used a remotely operated underwater vehicle to examine the vessel’s submerged cabin. Officials reported that Tuzon and Borbridge were located deceased inside, but the conditions surrounding the boat made an immediate recovery dangerously impractical. Strong winds, freezing spray and seas reportedly reaching approximately 10 to 15 feet prevented divers from safely entering or stabilizing the vessel. Rescue personnel attached a lighted beacon and a tracking transponder to the boat while arrangements were considered for a salvage operation capable of securing it. The capsized vessel, however, continued drifting westward into open water. It was last tracked during the early morning hours of January 11, approximately 22 miles west of Salisbury Sound, before search crews lost contact with it. Four Coast Guard aircraft and two cutters subsequently searched nearly 500 square miles, but neither the vessel nor the remains of Tuzon and Borbridge were recovered. The inability to bring the two young men home added another layer of grief to an already devastating loss, particularly because rescuers had identified where they were but were prevented by the unforgiving sea from reaching them safely.
Because Tuzon’s remains remained with the lost vessel, his information was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System under case number MP114712, with the Alaska State Troopers identified as the investigating agency. NamUs recorded his last contact as January 9, 2024, in the Sitka area. He was described as a male standing approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing about 160 pounds, with black hair and blue eyes; available case information also noted that he may have been wearing a brown or camouflage jacket. Although he continued to be documented through a missing-person record because his remains had not been recovered, official findings established that the case involved a fatal boating loss rather than an unexplained disappearance. In March 2024, after testimony describing the rescue, underwater search and unsuccessful recovery effort, a Sitka jury issued findings of presumptive death for Tuzon and Borbridge.
The circumstances surrounding the capsizing remained under investigation after the initial search ended. Alaska Wildlife Troopers later reported that the vessel’s operator had been intoxicated while operating the boat. In February 2026, a Sitka grand jury returned indictments against the operator on manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault charges, and he was arrested; those charges are accusations that must be resolved through the judicial process. Official accounts continued to describe Tuzon and Borbridge as having been located deceased inside the cabin, with their remains ultimately lost when the vessel drifted away in severe weather. Sayer Tuzon’s case is therefore the story of an 18-year-old Sitka man lost during a January 9, 2024, boating disaster near Khaz Point: three occupants were rescued, Tuzon and Darren Borbridge were found inside the submerged vessel but could not be safely recovered, the boat disappeared into the open ocean despite an extensive search, and authorities and a jury subsequently recognized that both young men had died. His continuing NamUs listing reflects the heartbreaking absence of a physical recovery, while official reports make clear that his fate is no longer considered unknown.
Last Seen: Jan 9, 2024
