SARASOTA, Fla. — A family in Sarasota is desperately searching for answers after a father disappeared during the height of Hurricane Debby’s torrential rain.
Jose Andino was driving to work from Sarasota to Bradenton when he encountered flooded roads; his cell phone last pinged near Phillippi Creek, where flooding devastated the area.
His daughter tells 10 Tampa Bay she's holding onto hope but bracing for the worst.
“We're very close,” Scarleth Andino said. “It's literally us two. That's why I still live with my dad, too, because he wanted to make sure, with me being a woman, I was safe.”
Monday afternoon, while Debby was unleashing historic rain and flooding streets and homes in Sarasota, Jose was trying to get to work in Bradenton at a Beall’s distribution center.
“I called him, made sure that he knew where I was,” she remembers. “I was telling him, like, hey, there's a lot of flooding.”
She made the call just after 1:30 p.m.; his shift ended at 2 a.m., and when Scarleth woke up Tuesday morning, he wasn't home.
“I checked outside, and his car wasn't there, and that's when I started like, ‘That's not right,’” she said. “He's never not come home.”
She's been frantically searching for him and his red Toyota 4-Runner ever since, checking hospitals, driving up and down his route to work, and calling the sheriff's office.
“My dad's case became a missing persons case [Thursday] after we kept going to the location, really telling them, ‘It's already been this long,’” she says. “He hasn't shown up to work or home. We're worried, especially with the storm.”
She says a detective told her Friday that they searched along Phillippi Creek with divers and sonar, with no luck.
“I really don't know, and I feel like I’ve been trying to stay strong because the moment I break down, I’m not going to know what to do,” she says.
Her mother, Jose’s wife, still lives in their native Honduras. An only child, she’s trying not to let her mind wander to the worst.
“Of course, I’m always hopeful,” she says. “I want my dad back. No matter what, in whatever condition, I just want my dad back.”
Andino's daughter is planning a search party starting at dawn Saturday morning at Pinecraft Park.
The sheriff's office tells us they are actively investigating the case but had no additional updates Friday.