"He's the greatest I've seen out there so far, far as like clamming and stuff like that," says Greg Sparkman. Sparkman is talking about his father, Greg Moss, who's been missing for two weeks after his boat capsized while crossing the St. Helena Sound.
"It was crazy. Seeing that my Dad did it for like forty years, something like this to happen to him it's a tragedy. To me it hurt. We're all feeling it," he adds.
Greg's cousin Xantha Riggins is also in disbelief. "I was totally devastated, floored. Pretty much numb."
Greg Moss grew up in the Little River Neck community of North Myrtle Beach. A marsh separates it from Cherry Grove. Growing up, he developed a love for the water.
"Shell fishing is a part of our heritage that's how our great mothers and fathers were, shell fisherman. And Greg was one of the older cousins, so he was right there learning all of it from the start," explains Riggins.
When Greg and others set out for a shellfishing trip in Beaufort County there was no cause for alarm. After a good day on the water, family members say as Greg was crossing the St. Helena Sound, the waters changed. It got dark, and the boat capsized after hitting a mud flat. He and a woman on the boat with him started swimming to shore. She had on a life jacket and made it to shore. Greg was not wearing a life jacket.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Colleton County Fire Rescue, and the Department of Natural Resources officers looked for him. Family members have also performed their own searches.
"We miss him so much. Just wondering and waiting around, just waiting for him to show himself. Waiting for God to bring him back. We know that it's not him, that he's now in heaven at least, so that we can have that closure," says Riggins.
A memorial is planned for Greg Friday, February 3 at 3 p.m. at Church of Christ in Myrtle Beach. That's also his 54th birthday.
