A couple from New Jersey on vacation in Barbados has gone missing after they left to go jet skiing on June 24.
Oscar Suarez, 32, and Magdalena Devil, 25, arrived in the eastern Caribbean island for a week-long vacation on June 22, according to local police. Two days later, the couple went on a 20-minute jetski ride from Hometown Beach, but they never came back.
The jetski operator became worried after the couple failed to show up at 2:55 p.m., their scheduled return time. After a search with other watercraft operators proved fruitless, the operator contacted police.
Suarez and Devil were both wearing life jackets when they set off for sea, the Royal Barbados Police said in a statement posted on Facebook. The jetski they rented has also not been found.
The couple was reported missing to police on June 24. The Police Marine Unit along with the Barbados Coast Guard conducted an extensive search for the couple but to no avail. Hotel management told police that neither of them had been back to the hotel, according to the press release.
Suarez and Devil were staying at the Discovery Bay Hotel in Trents, St. James.
A man who said he is Suarez’s uncle wrote in the comment section of the police notice on Facebook, asking for help. “I’m Oscar Suarez uncle..from Puerto Rico.. please let me know if anyone has any info.”
VACATION MYSTERY: Oscar Suarez, 32, and Magdalena Devil, 25, were proceeding out to sea on a jet ski on Monday and haven’t been seen since. https://t.co/Jqm80OOvSu
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) June 26, 2019
On June 26, Edgardo Suarez said he still had not been updated by Barbados police about his nephew. He also said Suarez’s mother and sister were on their way to Barbados, in response to a reporter on the Facebook comment section.
One person said they recognized Devil from the police’s Facebook post. “I went to school with Magdalena she was really a nice funny girl I praying the Lord they find them safe & sound!,” the man wrote.
Devil’s Instagram account shows that she runs a baking company. In one post she wrote she would be unavailable in June: “Hello everyone I will no longer be able to take any orders for the month of June. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
People on social media wondered how the couple could disappear without a trace. “How can jet skis disappear? They float. They wear life jackets so their bodies will float. Not making sense,” one woman wrote.
Others in the response-thread said that jet ski’s do sink. “My jet ski sank in the Bahamas last September. In the middle of the ocean! If it weren’t for a boat passing by and calling for help my girl and I would of been dead right now. Also, we had life jackets that were not good and didn’t fit well,” one woman wrote.
People generally showed concern about the lost couple and wished and prayed that they are found.
Police asked anyone who may have information regarding the whereabouts of Oscar Suarez and Magdalena Devil to please call the emergency number 211, Holetown Police Station at 419-1700, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIPS (8477), or the nearest police station.
