MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two families remain at a standstill as the search continues for their loved ones.
Keith Pigram and Quantavious Jamison disappeared when their tug boat sunk Friday morning. Now their family wants answers.
WREG spoke with the missing boater’s family as they were holding a vigil by the Mississippi river.
Family holding a vigil at the river hoping for word on 35-year-old Keith Pigrem and 19-year-old Anquavious Jamison.
“We need to know if they are on this boat. We want them to be, but we also don’t want them to be. If they are not, we have hope that they are still alive. If they are on this boat, we will get closure,” said Pigram’s sister Kanneshia Jones.
Pigram, a tug boat captain for Wepfer Marines, and his 19-year-old step son Anquavius Jamison, who was a deck hand, haven’t been seen since the Ricky Robinson boat sunk in the Mississippi River.
Jones has plenty of questions about the tug boat and the whereabouts of her missing family members.
“I talked to my brother several times, and he told me he had to constantly put oil in the boat and pump water off the boat,” said Jones. “I mean, they are raggedy. I have heard it. He told me this himself.”
The family also says they were told that no one at Wepfer Marines heard the distress call.
“Keith called ‘May Day, May Day, we are taking on water.’ Other companies heard it on the radio, but his company didn’t hear it.”
Items that were recovered from the banks of the river that appear to come from the tug boat were found by citizens who helped the family search.
“They found a refrigerator on the banks with Wepfer’s name on it. They opened it up, and it had food and stuff in there, and it was still cold,” said Jones.
Wepfer Marine’s representatives say they are not doing interviews and are personally involved in the next steps, but they have been keeping the families updated on everything.
“That’s a lie. That’s a lie. They are not talking to us at all,” said Jones. “They are not updating us on anything. We are not getting any answers from them. We ask them stuff and are told they are not able to answer any questions.”
James Logan worked on tug boats with Keith Pigrem as his captain and finds this accident hard to believe.
“The way he trained me, everyday I had to fill out paperwork. He made sure we had our pumps in case there were leaks of water. He checked how man hoses and how many lines we had,” said Logan. “He started as a deck hand and studied hard to become captain. He loved his job. For them to do him like this is just a unacceptable, just unacceptable.”