LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Survivors of a mystery-shrouded shipwreck off northern California now say two women -- not three -- perished in a storm and investigators Thursday probed evidence of drugs found near the broken remains of the pleasure craft.
Coast Guard and Marin County, Calif., investigators met late Wednesday in Las Vegas with John Paul Russell, 44, and Robert L. Dozier, 34, the survivors of Freedom II, a 51-foot ketch which smashed against rocks and sank the afternoon of Nov. 12 near Stinson Beach, Calif.
The meeting was called at the office of attorney Gerald Gillock to clear up discrepencies in the confusing, sometimes contradictory story involving a phantom 300-foot freighter the survivors said collided with their boat during a storm and the presumed drownings of several Virginia City, Nev., women.
Russell and Dozier, former owner of a Virginia City tavern, initially told authorities that two women, Russell's wife, Suzanne, and Kristen Tomlin, a friend of the Doziers, were swept away at sea. On Saturday, Dozier called the Coast Guard to report that his wife, Sheri Ann, also was missing and presumed drowned.
But Marin County Sheriff's Detective Linda Schmid said Thursday the men reversed course during the Las Vegas meeting and said only two women were killed in the boating accident.
'The men advised investigators two women were aboard the Freedom II when it struck rocks at Stinson Beach -- Susan Wright Russell and Christin Tomlin,' said Det. Schmid.
Det. Schmid offered no further explanation of the conflicting reports and Gillick refused to talk with reporters.
No bodies had yet been found of the drowning victims, but the detective said that was not unusual.
The Coast Guard searching an area near the ship wreckage found four to six paper packages and vials, 'commonly used in the illicit transport of cocaine, although in this case, no traces of cocaine were found,' said Schmid.
The police officer said the area where the boat ran aground had been the scene of at least two major drug busts in the past.
'There is no way to know where this stuff came from,' she said. 'We can't definitely say it came from that boat.'
Russell, known in Virginia City as John Farrell, is the father-in-law of Dozier, one-time operator of the 'Stage Stop Saloon' in the Northern Nevada community.
A 1980 background check of Dozier for the tavern's liquor license revealed he was convicted in the Air Force in California in 1968 for marijuana possession. He was fined $250.
Storey County, Nev., Sheriff Robert Delcarlo said Thursday that Russell at one time owned a Ford dealership in Hawaii and was a partner in another auto sales firm in Los Angeles.
The police official said the two men were experienced sailors, having piloted another boat around the world and Russell once sailed a Japanese junk from Japan to Hawaii.
Gillock told a news conference earlier this week that the shipwreck was caused by an unidentified freighter which struck Freedom II and failed to lend assistance to the shattered craft.
Freedom II began sinking during a violent storm and the survivors said 80-100 mile per hour winds tossed the craft against the rocks. The women reportedly perished as the ship and a survival raft were destroyed.
Coast Guard records for northern California showed no large freighters in the area at the time of the reported mishap and the National Weather Service said winds were about 40 miles per hour.
