WAFB Channel 9, Baton Rouge, LA |Crews search Gulf for missing teen
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Bruce O'Krepki (Courtesy Hammond Daily Star & Johnny Chauvin Photography)GULF OF MEXICO (WAFB) - The U.S. Coast Guard is searching the Gulf waters off the east coast of Florida for a Hammond teen that went missing from a cruise ship that sailed out of New Orleans on Saturday.
Authorities believe 18-year-old Bruce O'Krepki went overboard about 150 miles southwest of Tampa, Florida.
O'Krepki recently graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Hammond.
Officials say he was on board the Carnival Cruise Ship Fantasy for a senior trip.
The ship was on its way to Key West when O'Krepki came up missing.
The coast guard is scouring the area by air and sea where rescue crews believe the young man was lost.
According to friends of the family members, O'Krepki's parents were chaperones on the trip.
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