The Disappearance of Tyler Doyle from South Carolina
On January 26 of 2023, 22-year-old South Carolina resident Tyler Doyle went duck hunting off the coast of North Myrtle Beach with a friend in a 16-foot jon boat and has been missing ever since. It was a rough day on the water and there was a small craft advisory out that afternoon. He dropped his friend off at the north jetty on the Intracoastal Waterway and traveled further out in the boat to put out some duck decoys, staying in contact by phone. The friend lost sight of Doyle as he went around the south jetty. Not long after, Doyle called the friend to say the boat was having mechanical issues and had begun taking on water. His friend flagged down a passing boat, which attempted to get to Doyle’s location, but it had to return to shore because of the worsening weather conditions.
A 911 call prompted a multi-agency search that included the North Myrtle Beach Fire Rescue and the U.S. Coast Guard, along with a boat from the Horry County Fire Rescue that arrived on the scene within nine minutes of being dispatched. They found Tyler Doyle’s boat submerged, with the bow up and the motor down, with only a foot of the boat showing above water. At the time of the incident, the water temperature was 50 degrees, and the air temperature 39 degrees. A few days later, on January 31, Doyle’s waders and wallet were found off the North Carolina coast.
The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources issued a press release saying that based on cell phone records, data location information, witness interviews, a boat inspection and recovered items indicated this to be a boating and hunting accident, with no foul play suspected. They cited weather conditions and boating mechanical issues as the predominant contributing factors.
For over a month, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the Brunswick County North Carolina Sheriff’s Office and a Wisconsin-based nonprofit called Wings of Hope have continued to search for any sign of Tyler Doyle. On February 27, 2023, Wings of Hope, which had provided sonar, drones, and K-9 units, announced that they had made the difficult decision of discontinuing their search for Doyle. For now, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Civil Air Patrol are continuing their search as long as weather conditions allow.
Doyle’s wife Lakelyn gave birth to a daughter in the months after he went missing. His mother and brother discussed the impact of his loss in an interview with news station WMBF in January 2024. Anyone with information about Tyler Doyle’s case is asked to call the Coast Guard at 305-415-6800.
Tyler Doyle’s story was featured in Episode 55 of the Missing in the Carolinas podcast, Missing in the Water.