Body Found Off Egmont Key ID'd As I of 2 Missing Near Pass-A-Grille

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL – A body found off Egmont Key this afternoon was identified as Andrew Charles Dillman, who along with Jie Luo, was missing since Tuesday, according to authorities.

Shortly after 3 p.m., a boater reported the body floating in the water approximately three miles west of Egmont Key, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

Deputies recovered the body and made the identification, officials said, adding that the next of kin was notified.

Dillman, 27, from New York, and Luo, 21, from China, were declared missing in Pass-A-Grille Channel waters following a chartered four-hour boat trip off Shell Key with 15 students from Colorado State University onboard.

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At a Wednesday afternoon press conference, the boat's charter Capt. Todd Davis said he made the decision not to take the boat into open Gulf of Mexico waters due to hazardous conditions and, instead, anchored the vessel in the channel area instead, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said. At that point, five male students decided to go swimming off the side of the boat while it was anchored. Davis told authorities he advised the men not to go because it was too rough.

“Only four were able to swim back to the vessel,” the sheriff’s office wrote in a Wednesday morning email to media. As the charter boat’s captain tried to help four of the swimmers back onto the vessel, a charter mate jumped in the water to help the fifth student, the sheriff’s office said.

Davis told authorities he pulled anchor and tried to rescue the men. The current, however, pulled them away. An attempt to throw flotation devices out to the two, resulted in the wind pulling those devices in the other direction, Gualtieri said.

"The last anybody saw them, they were being pulled out into the Gulf," the sheriff's office said.

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--Sherri Lonon contributed to this report/Image via Renee Schiavone