Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — The Marine Patrol Division of the Department of Public Safety (DPS) has officially called off their search for a man, a US National, who was swept out to sea at Leala Sliding Rock in Taputimu after a team of certified divers who searched the area for over 72 hours were unable to locate him.

Divers from DPS, Department of Marine and Wildlife Resources and also private divers assisted in the search.

A DPS senior official confirmed their report to Samoa News this week. According to the report, divers searched the whole area looking for the missing man, however, there was no sign of him.

“We searched for this man, Aunu’u Chen for three full days but were unable to locate his body. We did our best with the resources we have on hand and also the skills our certified divers have, unfortunately, the search was unsuccessful,” a DPS senior official told Samoa News.

Sliding Rock and that whole coastline is a notoriously dangerous place when the surf is up and many individuals have been lost there, over the years from ‘rogue’ waves or surges.

The senior official stated that Chen was at the beach on Sunday afternoon with four friends. It is not clear at this time what actually happened which caused the missing man to be swept out to sea.

Samoa News questioned two men who live close to the area where the search was conducted and they said that they witnessed the second day of the search where divers were out in the rough water searching for the missing man but came up empty.

A post on Chen’s Facebook page on social media stated that, “A million words would not bring you back, I know because I tried, neither would a million tears, I know because I cried.”

The search was called off Tuesday afternoon.

Samoa News offers its sincere condolences to the Chen family, who are well-known local business owners in American Samoa.