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At about 1 p.m. Thursday, they headed out for sea kayaking at a beach in Puerto Peñasco, a Gulf of California resort city also known as Rocky Point.
“Very strong winds came up,” according to the verified GoFundMe page that Aumack created to aid the search effort. Allen brought his daughter back to shore — it is unclear whether he rowed her back or swam with her — then went back to help his wife.
That was the last time anyone saw Allen or Kim, Aumack said. Since then, authorities in Sonora have been trying to find the couple. Their daughter is still in Rocky Point, Aumack said.
Sonora state’s emergency services agency posted a photo of the missing couple on its Twitter account Saturday afternoon and said it was coordinating the search of land, sea and air with the navy and municipal authorities.
American tourists and locals with boats volunteered to look for the couple in the ocean, Aumack said; shrimp boats were asked to peel the ocean for the couple; people with ATVs offered to drive up and down the coast while scanning the sea; and volunteer pilots were flying above the Gulf of California to spot the missing Americans or the kayak.
“Rocky Point is a popular tourist spot, especially for people from Arizona,” said Aumack. “So lots of locals and Americans are helping with the search.”
On Sunday afternoon, the emergency services agency said it had found a body matching the description of one of two missing people off the coast of nearby Playa Encanto, but it did not confirm the identity.
On Flagstaff Information, a Facebook page that is helping to coordinate the search efforts, rumors spread that the body was Kim’s and it was discovered “8 miles off the coast of the Mayan Palace resort.”
“I will not believe it till its verified by the people who are close to me and on the ground in Mexico,” Aumack told The Post.
Aumack said she is in contact with people who are assisting the search efforts from Rocky Point, and by Sunday evening she had received no confirmation about Allen’s or Kim’s deaths.
An NAU spokesperson told The Post that the university president would release a statement Sunday evening.
Aumack’s granddaughter and the couple’s daughter are best friends, said Aumack. She has known the family, which includes their college freshman son who did not go to Mexico, for 11 years.
“This is a family that is well-known, much loved and respected in Flagstaff,” Aumack said. “The entire community is heartbroken but hopeful.”
