LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia — On the very dock where she had stood days earlier bowing in respect to departing rescue teams, the wife of Fernando Martín Carreras finally met the tragic conclusion of her vigil. As the Basarnas vessel KN Puntadewa approached Marina Labuan Bajo harbor on Sunday morning, carrying the body believed to be her husband, her composure shattered into raw, unrestrained grief.
Photographs from the scene capture the profound moment of heartbreak. Huddled at the edge of the wooden pier, she wept openly, her face buried in her hands, as friends and family formed a protective circle around her. Between sobs, she was seen clutching a rosary, her lips moving in silent prayer, seeking solace in faith as the boat bearing her husband’s remains drew nearer.
Just over a week ago, she had stood at this same spot, bowing deeply in a gesture of profound gratitude and hope as search teams set out each day. That hope, sustained through a grueling ten-day multinational operation involving sonar, drones, and over 150 personnel, has now been replaced by the certainty of loss.
Her husband, the Valencia CF women’s B-team coach, was found floating in the waters near Rinca Island, approximately two kilometers from where the tourist boat KM Putri Sakinah sank on December 26. The recovery on Sunday, the final scheduled day of the search, confirmed the family’s worst fears while leaving a cruel uncertainty: the couple’s two young sons, aged 9 and 10, remain missing.
The agonizing scene at the dock underscores the human toll of the Komodo maritime tragedy, stripping away the statistics of search grids and nautical miles to reveal a family broken by the sea. As her husband’s body was transferred to a waiting ambulance for forensic identification at Komodo Hospital, her prayers on the pier were no longer for a safe return, but for strength in the face of an incomplete goodbye and the ongoing nightmare of searching for their children.
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