Search for missing Mandeville girl continues, but hope dies
Published: Monday, July 18, 2011, 5:57 PM Updated: Monday, July 18, 2011, 9:02 PM
Outgoing, chatty, with a perpetual smile, 12-year-old Samantha Vinturella had the type of personality that rarely went unnoticed.
Samantha Vinturella Now a stunned family and community are left to ask why tragedy would fall upon the gregarious student at Mandeville's Our Lady of the Lake Catholic School.
Samantha, who was set to enter the seventh grade next month, is missing and presumed dead after being thrown from a boat following a collision with another vessel Saturday afternoon in a canal near Shell Beach.
"We are praying that she will be brought home to her family," said longtime family friend and neighbor Beth Warwick. "We want her to come home. Our hearts are broken, and we just need to find her so we can have some sense of peace."
Parishioners at Our Lady of the Lake have been trying to lift the spirits of the family, and there will be a special Mass said for the Vinturellas on Tuesday at 5:15 p.m.
JOHN MCCUSKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE St. Tammany, St. Bernard and Navy personnel are continuing the search for Samantha Vinturella who disappeared after a boat collision near Shell Beach. The Mandeville girl is 12. Search for Samantha Vinturella gallery (7 photos)
"It's not an easy time for the family, we know that, and especially that the parents don't know where the child is . . . This has really struck the fabric of the parish, I must say. It has gone all the way to the core."
The search for Samantha continued throughout the day Monday by deputies from St. Tammany and St. Bernard parishes, state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents and Coast Guard and Navy personnel, with authorities acknowledging that the effort had moved from that of rescue to recovery.
"Realistically, we have no hope that she survived at this point," St. Bernard Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Jimmy Pohlmann said.
Search for Samantha Vinturella The search for Samantha Vinturella continues at Shell Beach in St. Bernard parish. Watch video The search has involved high technology and more traditional, low-tech methods. As Navy teams deployed automated submersibles that use sonar to scan the beds of the waterways, other boats carried cadaver dogs on the surface in hopes that they could provide clues to divers, who have had to contend with extremely low visibility and stormy conditions since the search began.
Meanwhile, a steady stream of boats cruised in and out of Campo's Marina throughout the day, using sonar and nets to scour the bottom of the waterways.
In addition to the first responders involved in the search, St. Bernard deputies said they had received several requests from residents who wanted to aid in the operation.
The search, despite its tragic nature, does show the growing bonds between various agencies in the New Orleans area, said Capt. Ryan Clark, head of the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office Marine Unit.
"It's like you don't have parish boundaries anymore," Clark said. "If someone needs assistance, everyone comes."
Pohlmann pledged that the search would continue until officials were able "to bring her home." But he acknowledged that the nature of the waterways might make recovery difficult, particularly given the strong flow of water in the canal near the crash site.
Samantha was ejected from a 15-foot boat driven by her uncle, 48-year-old Paul Battle, on Saturday around 5:30 p.m. when it collided with a 20-foot boat driven by Marion Funchess, 61, of Folsom. Her sister and two cousins also were ejected but were rescued quickly by a third boat.
Battle was not thrown from the boat but suffered serious injuries, and he remains in the hospital.
Funchess and the other man in the 20-foot boat were uninjured, Wildlife and Fisheries spokesman Adam Enick said.
The accident occurred about a half-mile north of Campo's Marina in Shell Beach Bayou, south of Lake Borgne.
On Sunday, there were approximately 30 people on 10 vessels involved in the search. Air searches were suspended about midday because of poor weather.
Alcohol is not suspected as a factor at this time, Enick said, though the incident remains under investigation. No charges have been filed.
Enick said officials are "pretty positive" Samantha was not wearing a life jacket.
On Sunday night, as her parents and some family members waited with hope and prayers alongside the efforts at Shell Beach, others gathered in the Oak Island subdivision near Mandeville where the Vinturella family lives.
The tight-knit group of friends, family and neighbors said they were still holding out hope that Samantha will be found.
Samantha, the daughter of Elizabeth and David Vinturella, was a member of the youth group The Highway at St. Timothy on the Northshore Methodist Church in Mandeville, and was a counselor at Bible school there this summer. She also danced at Northshore Academy of Dance in Covington and studied piano.
Neighbor and friend Mark Hoff described Samantha as a loving, happy girl who "would sit down and talk to you like she was an adult. She is always talking, always outgoing. She was just so full of personality."
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