{"id":134383,"date":"2026-01-28T03:07:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:07:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134383\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T03:07:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T03:07:21","slug":"missing-kayakers-body-found-on-clearwater-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/134383\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing kayaker\u2019s body found on Clearwater Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

CLEARWATER BEACH, Fla. – The body of a kayaker who had been missing for more than a week<\/a> has been found on Clearwater Beach<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

A citizen found the body of Elias Guillermo Lara Vargas around 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

Investigators said his death does not appear to be suspicious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

According to Dunedin Fire Rescue, El\u00edas Guillermo Lara Vargas and two others left from the Gulf side of Honeymoon Island on January 18, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

First responders said one of the three kayakers made it to shore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

READ: Teenager finds 4-year-old brother stabbed to death, mother injured inside St. Pete home: Police<\/a><\/p>\n

Vargas, who\u2019s from the Citrus Park Area, and a female kayaker were trying to make it back to land, but the woman\u2019s kayak flipped, and she fell into the water. As Vargas, who was a lifeguard, tried to help her, his kayak also flipped, and he ended up in the water.<\/p>\n

The current separated them from their kayaks, which were later found on Caladesi Island.<\/p>\n

The person in their group who was on shore called 911 around 6:24 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

When Dunedin Fire Rescue\u2019s fire boat got there, the agency\u2019s spokesperson said it had to slow down because of the conditions. There was a small craft advisory, waves were three to five feet high, and winds were more than 20 mph.<\/p>\n

The crew heard the female kayaker calling for help and found her in the water off of Dog Beach on the south side of Honeymoon Island. They threw her a rescue ring and were able to bring her on board the boat around 6:45 p.m., warm her up and start treating her for exhaustion and hypothermia.<\/p>\n

READ: Circle K customers left with car problems after filling up at Nokomis gas station, state investigating<\/a><\/p>\n

Clearwater Fire & Rescue\u2019s boat got there not long after and took the woman to a waiting ambulance that brought her to the hospital. It then came back and helped Dunedin, the PCSO, the Coast Guard, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and a couple of other fire agencies search for Vargas.<\/p>\n

Coast Guard crews searched by air and sea covering approximately 290 square miles. On-scene weather conditions during the search were approximately 10 to 15 mph winds and 3 to 4-foot seas.<\/p>\n

The Source: This article was written with information from the Pinellas County Sheriff\u2019s Office and previous FOX 13 News reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clearwater<\/a>Missing Persons<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEARWATER BEACH, Fla. – The body of a kayaker who had been missing for more than a week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1339,630,47,6888,115,1157,135,137,136,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-134383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-clearwater","9":"tag-crime-publicsafety","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-missing-persons","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-pinellas","14":"tag-tampa","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news","17":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}