Starting Sunday, new personnel will arrive to revitalize the search for the UC Berkeley sophomore reported missing in a Texas lake on July 13.
Divers stopped looking for Song Sok on Saturday, according to Roger Wade, spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. Wade said police have in large part exhausted their resources and that surface water searches continue. Meanwhile, Sok’s family and friends have raised more than $12,000 of a $15,000 goal in a crowdfunding campaign to bring a specialized crew from Florida to search for Sok.
Personnel from the Underwater Crime Scene Investigation unit at the Florida State University Panama City Campus will bring sophisticated sonar equipment to the search, according to Wade.
Sok, 20, visited Lake Travis with coworkers while interning for a technology company in the Dallas area. He and another man had jumped in the water to cool off, according to a press release from the sheriff’s office. Witnesses reported that one of the men appeared to be in distress but could not be reached before going under the water.
UC Berkeley alumnus Robert Hernandez, Sok’s roommate and one of those who helped launch the crowdfunding campaign, said Sok worked constantly to support his mother and sisters. A computer science major, Sok is known among his friends as an exceptionally diligent student who went out of his way to help classmates.
According to UC Berkeley junior Christopher Coale, Sok had recently been accepted into the major and was so excited when he got the email that he sent screenshots to his friends. UC Berkeley sophomore Ian Fox remembers laughing and joking as he and Sok studied together in Soda Hall.
“He would always be in the lab at night, getting things done,” Fox said. “When I think of (him) it’s always of how much fun we had when we were supposed to be doing work.”
Hernandez emphasized that the beleaguered search for Sok has been frustrating for his friends and family but that they are grateful for all the support they have received.
“The family, they just want him home,” Hernandez said. “We’re doing whatever we can.”
Melissa Wen is a news editor. Contact her at mwen@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @melissalwen.