LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia — The recovery of a body from the Komodo seas on Sunday brought a family a heartbreaking certainty before official confirmation was complete. The man, believed to be Valencia CF coach Fernando Martín Carreras, was found wearing only a pair of red trousers—a detail his family immediately recognized.
The body was discovered floating near Rinca Island at approximately 8:47 a.m. on January 4, the tenth and final scheduled day of a multinational search. First spotted by a police patrol vessel, it was described as being face down on a calm sea surface.
At the Search and Rescue command post in Marina Labuan Bajo, a family member delivered the simple, devastating news: “Father is found.” This informal identification was based on the clothing, as authorities awaited formal forensic results.
“The family recognized those clothes as belonging to the victim,” said Fathur Rahman, Head of the Maumere Search and Rescue Office and the mission coordinator. While he acknowledged the family’s recognition, he maintained that official confirmation would come only after a full forensic examination at the Komodo Hospital by police and medical teams. “We are still waiting for the identification results,” Fathur stated.
The poignant detail of the red trousers provided a small, human anchor in a vast maritime tragedy. It offered the grieving family a tangible, if sorrowful, connection and a provisional answer, cutting through the bureaucratic process with the painful clarity of personal memory. The official investigation into the sinking of the KM Putri Sakinah continues, as does the search for the coach’s two missing sons.
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