A Cal State student with a promising future is missing, and his loved ones fear the worst.
Hunter Lewis is a 21-year-old studying aerospace engineering at Cal State Long Beach. Everyone who knows the bright young man speaks highly of him. He was even recently accepted to NASA's PoSSUM Scientist Astronaut Program. For the last two years, Hunter has been working on a treasure hunt for family and friends to participate in.
On December 30, Hunter left from Trinidad Beach in Humboldt County, California. He planned to hide more objects and prizes related to the treasure hunt. The Los Angeles Times reports that authorities believe he was traveling from the beach to Flat Rock, a tiny island a few hundred yards offshore. He was traveling by canoe.
Hunter is equipped with a number of skills to help him survive in the outdoors. He has both his pilot's license and scuba license. Still, he wasn't familiar with navigating the waters around Trinidad Beach and may not have been aware of a rocky reef in his path.
As the days pass, Hunter's family believes this is a recovery operation and not a rescue. Portions of Hunter's canoe and other personal items have washed ashore, the most significant being a prized wooden cigar box from an earlier treasure hunt held by his family.
"He's that lost treasure," dad Corey Lewis said.
"At this point, it's a recovery operation, not a rescue operation. I am just hoping to find my son to return to his mother to bury."
A GoFundMe page was started to help the family with the cost of searching for Hunter.
