Authorities in the Dominican Republic reportedly reignited the search for a missing Florida surfer Thursday after the discovery of his wallet.
The wallet of Darryl Foatora, a 46-year-old Palm Beach native, contained his driver’s license, credit cards and hundreds of dollars in cash with bu marks, WPEC-TV reported. A local driver reportedly found the wallet in Cabarete.
Foatora disappeared on Jan. 27 and the discovery of his wallet has been the first piece of substantial evidence found in the case.
According to his family, Foatora and his friend Matt Rigby checked into a villa in Caberete on Jan. 25 during their surfing trip. When he was finished surfing, Foatora checked in with his nervous mother. However, after their text-message exchange, his mother said she never heard from him again.
Foatora and Rigby were scheduled to fly home together on Jan. 31. But for reasons unknown, Rigby cut his trip short and retued to Florida Jan. 28. Foatora's retu ticket went unchanged -- and unused.
A day later, Rigby called Foatora’s parents and said he had not heard or seen their son since the afteoon of Jan. 27, according to the family.
Foatora’s family said that Rigby’s story of what occurred in the coastal town has changed several times.
At one point he claimed that there was no surf and decided to travel home and that Foatura stayed behind. Then he claimed Foatora got upset one night as they headed into town and when he looked away from Foatora for a split second, Foatora was gone.
The newest events in the search for Foatora have his family more conceed than relieved.
“I decided I would check Facebook and opened it up and saw the evidence that they have found his wallet,” Nancy Foatora, Darryl’s mother, told WPTV. “Everything was just right out there and I thought that we would get a waing or something prior to something like that happening. But we did not and it was rather shocking.”
Gilbert Foatora, Darryl’s father, also expressed conces over the case, calling the latest news “very strange.”
“It’s very strange,” Gilbert told WPTV. “That after 49 days, with some visits down there and some communication between so-called witnesses of Darryl’s whereabouts in the last day, that all of these things seem to have occurred right after some notoriety.”
WPEC-TV reported that the discovery of Foatora’s wallet has led authorities to plan for dive crews to search the area again. Murky waters stopped divers from searching the area on Friday.
The Dominican Republic National Police Department is leading the investigation into the disappearance of Foatora and is sharing its information with the U.S. Embassy. The Foatora family is supposed to get updates from the embassy as new information trickles in.
Local authorities ruled out drowning for Foatora, who is an experienced surfer and swimmer and works as the director of the Lake Park Teis Center in Lake Park, Fla.
The Foatora family is still hopeful that more information will come to light soon. A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Foatora, WPEC-TV reported.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged to call the embassy tipline at 809-368-7713.
Fox News’ Cristina Corbin contributed to this report.