The father of a teen who went missing after being swept away from an Orange County beach has said he will find it heartbreaking to go back to the family home without his son.
Anthony Parnell, 18, was visiting from Nevada, and was reported missing from Thousand Steps Beach in Laguna Beach at about 1:30 p.m. in high, dangerous surf. Lifeguards are not optimistic he will be found alive.
His friends saw him wearing black shorts and no shirt when he was hit by high surf and swept away from the rocks he was standing on, they told firefighters with the Orange County Fire Authority.
His father Foster Parnell is hoping his son will be found soon.
"I just wish we could find him. It's killing my wife, we just want to bring him back to Vegas... so we can have some closure. That's the bottom line. It will be hard to leave here without him," Foster said.
Search teams consisting of Orange County and Laguna Beach lifeguards, Coast Guard crews and first responders' helicopters called off their search before 11 p.m. Sunday with no sightings made, OCFA Capt. Steve Concialdi said.
The search resumed soon after daybreak Monday, with lifeguards and dive teams scouring the coast for Parnell. But officials didn't believe he'd be able to survive the night in the water.
Anthony's brother Ricky Parnell said he is not giving up hope.
"I just want everyone to be positive about it, because... later on I'll freak out and I'll break down, but for now it's positivity over everything," Ricky said.
Parnell played high school football in Las Vegas and had recently signed up to join the Army, according to his parents.
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They released a statement that called Parnell "was a wonderful human being" who loved cooking, football, music, art and his family.
Nine people drowned at Orange County beaches last year, "all avoidable," said Concialdi, who urged beachgoers to watch raging surf from afar.
The high surf warning is in place through Tuesday afternoon, and Thousand Steps Beach remained closed both beacuse of the dangerous surf and the investigation into Parnell's disappearance continued.
Annette Arreola, Michael Larkin, the Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.
