On Thursday, April 12, 1990, four commercial fishermen from Darien, Georgia, went for a week of fishing off South Carolina’s Edisto Island along the Atlantic Ocean. Captaining their thirty-four-foot fiberglass snapper boat, the Casie Nicole, was twenty-three-year-old Billy Joe Neesmith. His crew mates were his thirty-one-year-old brother Nathan, their eighteen-year-old nephew Keith Wilkes, and twenty-three-year-old family friend Franklin Brantley.

The Casie Nicole had recently returned to service after being damaged in a storm five weeks earlier. Friday the thirteenth proved a fatal day for the fishermen as the boat broke down again during the early morning hours. The crew was forced to abandon ship. Only Nathan returned home; the fate of his mates remains a mystery.

A Coast Guard search failed to find any trace of the men, and they were presumed lost at sea. Some, however, believe the crew of the Casie Nicole may have met a different fate.

Between 3:30-4:00 on the morning of April 13, while docked at Tiger’s Ledge, an unchartered fishing reef approximately eighty miles off the South Carolina coast, the crew of the Casie Nicole awoke to find the boat taking on water. Making matters worse, the engine and radio were both dead.

The fishermen were forced to abandoned ship in a life raft, but it too failed them, as it had somehow incurred a quarter-sized hole. They drifted until sunrise, clinging to the raft’s hatch cover.

The Casie Nicole

Nathan spotted the Casie Nicole’s hull cover adrift; he thought it was three-to-four miles away. Against the wishes of his crew mates, he swam toward it.

After swimming for several hours and shortly before dark descended over the waters, Nathan came upon what he thought was the boat’s stern. By nightfall, he lost sight of his mates. He spent the harrowing evening in the waters, clinging to the Casie Nicole‘s hull.

Come morning, Nathan saw a freighter pass in what he believed to be the area where his friends had been. The freighter made several odd maneuvers, frequently stopping and making circles, during which he saw fogs of smoke emanating from the ship. These actions continued for what Nathan thought was approximately three hours before the freighter exited his view.

Nathan Neesmith

Nathan was rescued on April 15, after four-and-a-half days at sea, twenty miles off Georgia’s coast and twenty-five miles east of South Carolina’s Hilton Head Island.

He was suffering from severe hypothermia, dehydration, and sunburn, but he ultimately made a full recovery.

Rescued Nathan

With His Wife Sheila

A Coast Guard search located the boat and hatch cover, along with a life vest and a sleeping bag, approximately five miles from where Nathan was rescued, but it failed to find his companions.

No Sign Of The Crew

No information surfaced regarding the missing crew of the Casie Nicole until October 5, 1990, six months after the ill-fated voyage, when a family member and a friend began receiving a series of strange phone calls.

The first call, made to Nathan and Billy Joe’s sister, Oneda Drawdy, was from a man who seemed unable to speak or understand English. He spoke in Spanish and all Oneda could make out was her name and phone number. The call then abruptly ended.

Oneda Drawdy

Billy Joe And Nathan’s Sister

Doug Tyson, Billy Joe’s employer and owner of the Casie Nicole, received a similar phone call that same day. Again, a man spoke in Spanish, and the only English words uttered were Doug’s name and phone number.

Doug Tyson

Casie Nicole Owner

Five more calls were received, three by Oneda and two by Doug, over the following five months. In the last call, on March 6, 1991, the caller spoke one sentence in English before the connection was broken: “I’m bringing them home.”

Nathan, Oneda, and Doug believed the freighter seen by Nathan may have been involved in illegal maritime activity and may have taken the small raft and its crew to another country where the men were being held as prisoners. The Spanish words of the caller suggest they may have been transported to Cuba, which has had perilous relations with the United States for many years.

With the passage of over thirty years, however, and with no new clues, the likelihood of the Casie Nicole crew still being alive is remote.

United States government records list Billy Joe Neesmith, Keith Wilkes, and Franklin Brantley as lost at sea, and the three men have been declared legally dead.

The Fishermen’s Fate

Is Still Unknown

SOURCES:

• Associated Press
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution
• The Gaffney Ledger (South Carolina)
• Macon Telegraph
• Tuscaloosa News
• Unexplained Mysteries
• Unsolved Mysteries