“No One Has Tried So Hard”

Eric Reidy on speaking to the families of the Ghost Boat.

“Just you need to tell us you are still in the investigation.”

One of the Ghost Boat family members wrote me this message earlier this week. We had been silent for a while. With no new information being posted, the family members started asking understandable questions: What is happening with the investigation? Is the team still dedicated to seeing it through?

A year and a half later the wound is still fresh, their loved ones are still missing, and the search is still pressing. It’s easy for those without so much on the line to tune out and move on. But the family members are still in limbo; the fate of their mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, still unknown.

Over the months we’ve been working, many family members I’ve heard from have come to see this investigation as their last hope for finding out what happened.

“No one has tried so hard,” one of them wrote me.

“I really hope we find an answer,” is all I could think to respond.

Hearing that many of them were now asking where we had gone, I realized more than ever that we couldn’t let this investigation peter out. Even if it had lost steam in December, we needed to figure out ways to move it forward — to exhaust every possibility to the best of our abilities. I also needed to let the family members we were still in it.

The following is a letter I wrote to the family members about the next phase of the investigation. One of them translated it into Tigrinya, and at the beginning of this week we posted it in a private Facebook group that is used by around 50 relatives and friends.

As I wrote at the end of the letter: We remain committed to the investigation. And we still hope to provide answers that can end their wait.

Dear Family Members,

When we started working on the Ghost Boat we knew it was going to be a difficult task. We were motivated to take on the investigation because we wanted you to know that there were people in the world who care, just as you do, about the fate of your loved ones. We also wanted to do everything in our power to try to find answers to end your long period of not knowing.

After two two months of intensive investigation, we ran into some roadblocks. Currently, we are waiting to speak with Measho Tesfamariam. He is in prison in Italy and was just sentenced to more than six years in prison for his role in the smuggling ring responsible for the disappearance of the Ghost Boat.

We are also working with a trusted local journalist in Libya who is helping us search for answers on the ground there. Due to the political situation in the country, Libya is a difficult place to find concrete information. And, even after we speak with Measho, he may not have information we are looking for that will help us find answers.

You probably noticed that for the past month we took a step back from the investigation. During that time we have been working on a new strategy that will hopefully help us get closer to an answer. Our idea now is to take our search to the water. We have not been able to confirm whether the missing people actually reached the shore and boarded a boat. But, if they did, we think we have enough information now to narrow down an area where the boat could have gone missing without being noticed. So, the plan is to use the data and reporting we have to establish a search area. We will then turn our efforts to examining that search area using digital material, such as satellite photographs, to see if we can find evidence of the Ghost Boat.

The strategy, in some ways, may seem like a long shot. But, I think it says something about how difficult this investigation is that this might be our best chance of uncovering some concrete evidence about what happened to your loved ones.

At the same time, we will continue working with our reporter on the ground in Libya to try to uncover information there as well. And, if Measho ends up providing useful information, we will incorporate that into our search as well. For now, we would like you to know that we remain committed to the investigation. And, we are still hoping to provide answers and end your waiting. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to get in touch with me or Bobbie. Your feedback and stories are our motivation for continuing this project.

Onward.