2 Die, 3 Lost but Girl, 9, Survives Capsizing of Pleasure Boat in Sea

A 9-year-old girl was rescued from the sea Monday after she spent more than a dozen terror-filled hours clinging to the wreckage of a pleasure boat that capsized 11 miles south of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The bodies of two women were found in the wreckage.

Two men and another child believed to have been on board the boat are still missing and were the object of a sea and air search, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Debra Harbaugh said the partly submerged hull of the 28-foot power vessel DC II was spotted at 5:30 p.m. Monday by a commercial sportfishing boat, the First String, returning to San Pedro from Santa Catalina Island.

Paul Strasser, 23, skipper of the First String, said he saw the body of a young woman tangled in the wreckage--and noticed “something orange” floating nearby. “It was moving. It seemed to have someone in it,” he said. “Someone alive. . . . “

First Officer Mark Pisano went over the side to investigate, and found the 9-year-old survivor.

“She was just about worn out and I’m not sure she knew what was happening right then,” he said. “But she was still moving, still trying to swim toward the boat. She was great!”

Strasser said the girl, later identified as Desiree Rodriguez, was “in shock when we first got her on board.”

But when she had warmed up, she told Strasser that she had been asleep on board the DC II when another boat rammed it in darkness and thick fog late Sunday night or early Monday morning. He said the girl was not able to describe the other vessel, except to say that it was much larger than hers.

Coast Guard spokeswoman Harbaugh, however, said examination of visible parts of the wreckage indicated that no collision had occurred.

She said Coast Guard experts on the scene told her the boat had evidently been swamped and capsized by the following swell of a much larger vessel that passed in the darkness.

The crew of the First String administered first aid to the child and contacted the Coast Guard, which dispatched a helicopter, a cutter and a patrol boat to the scene to press the search. Los Angeles County lifeguards also sent a patrol boat to join the search. But by late Monday, no other survivors or bodies had been found.

The missing were identified as the girl’s father, Thomas Rodriguez, 30, his daughter, Tricia Rodriguez, 5, and a friend, Allen Wheeler.

The two women whose bodies were recovered and brought ashore by the Coast Guard were identified as Rodriguez’ wife, Petra Rodriguez, 27, and Corinne Wheeler, 28.

All the victims were believed to be from Riverside, the Coast Guard said.

The surviving child remained on board the First String, under observation by a Coast Guard paramedic who had been put aboard. The sportfishing boat took her to San Pedro, where she was turned over to Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics, who took her to San Pedro Peninsula Hospital.

Condition Is Stable

She was admitted to the hospital’s pediatric unit, where a spokesman said she appeared to be in stable condition.

Harbaugh said the child appeared to have suffered no major physical injury and was “in good spirits,” despite her long wait in the ocean. She said the girl seemed to have “a strong, resilient constitution.”

But First String passenger Mike Bailey of Hermosa Beach, who witnessed the rescue, thought there was more to it than physical condition:

“She was lucky,” he said, “that the captain had good eyes. Otherwise she wouldn’t have made it.”