Wave capsizes memorial boat near Alcatraz, leaving two missing

A memorial outing to scatter Maria Boisa’s ashes turned deadly near Alcatraz Island when a powerful wave rolled the Volare and sent water flooding into the cabin cruiser. Authorities believed about 20 family members and friends were aboard the Stockton-based boat when it capsized in San Francisco Bay on Tuesday afternoon, July 14, leaving at least one person dead and others fighting for their lives.

The gathering had been meant to honor Maria Boisa, who died in 2016 at age 33. Some reports said she had worked as a nurse in Fremont, and relatives had taken the boat out onto the bay to scatter her ashes near Alcatraz, one of the most recognizable and heavily traveled stretches of water in the region.

The U.S. Coast Guard and local responders launched a search-and-rescue operation after the crash. By sunset on July 15, the Coast Guard suspended the search and shifted the effort toward recovery. Officials later said another body had been found, while two people remained missing, deepening the loss for a family that had gone on the water for a memorial and instead faced a mass-casualty emergency.

Investigators were still trying to determine what caused the capsizing and why the Volare, described as a 49-foot or 50-foot cabin cruiser based in Stockton, took on water so quickly after the wave hit. Later examination of the wreckage found the boat submerged in San Francisco Bay with sonar, and a remotely operated vehicle was deployed to inspect it.

The case drew wide attention because it unfolded near Alcatraz, close to the Golden Gate and within a busy search-and-rescue zone where ferries, tour boats and private vessels move through the same waters. For the Boisa family, a ceremony meant to mark remembrance became a scene of abrupt and compounding grief, with the bay still holding answers about how a calm outing turned catastrophic.