It's been four agonizing days for the family of missing fisherman Liborio Martinez Jr. since witnesses reported last seeing him drown in a Willacy County Canal.
"I don't even feel like he's passed away,” says Clara Martinez. “I don't know if it's because we haven't found him yet. I still feel like there's still hope.”
Family members and friends hope that the missing 20-year-old will turn up.
Martinez was on a fishing trip with a cousin and friend when they decided to swim across the canal near FM 1420.
That's when witnesses say Martinez disappeared into the water.
Martinez's sister Clara and his mother Maria say not enough is being done to search for him.
“They did say that if in 72 hours if my brother did not show up they would have to investigate it as a homicide,” says Clara. “And we believe if that's the case they should have started getting evidence from the scene.”
The investigation is ongoing says the Willacy County Sheriff's Department.
Sheriff Larry Spence says the search has been challenging because of the amount of debris in the canal and the water is up to 26 feet deep in some spots.
“The problem we're running into there is there's a lot of mesh wire and a lot of debris, rocks down there,” says Sheriff Spence. “A lot of jagged objects.”
Spence says “It's been very difficult but we want to let the family know that we've been out there almost every day.”
Investigators tell us they've used all the resources available to them in the search.
Monday morning they had a Border Patrol cadaver dog and DPS pilot flying a helicopter over the area.
Still, they're search has come up empty.
But Clara and Maria Martinez say they will not give up hope, and hope authorities won't either.
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