Abducted child from Cocoa reunited with mother

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St. Petersburg, Florida --  After an extensive search by air and water, the U.S. Coast Guard says 3-year-old Luke Finch was found safe on his father's sailboat.

It was an emotional reunion as little boy ran to his mother after the Coast Guard boat he was on docked at the Fort Myers Beach Coast Guard station shortly after 5:30pm.

Police in Cocoa, Florida say the little boy was abducted by his father. 35-year-old Paul Martikainen. during a supervised visit on Saturday afternoon.

Hours later, the two were spotted in St. Petersburg leaving the Salt Creek Marina in Martikainen's 32-foot sailboat.

Luke's mother, Christa Finch, says she had no idea her ex-husband had a boat or was remotely interesting in sailing. 

She is convinced had it not been for the people at the Salt Creek Marina who saw him leaving with her son, they would have never known where to look.

A lot of people were looking for the three-year-old.  Police were concerned for his safety because Martikainen is not known to be an experienced sailor.

The boat was spotted around 5 p.m. Monday by a C-130 aircraft about 140 miles off the coast of Fort Myers Beach.  The location was on the south end of a 22,000 square mile search area.

The boat remained under surveillance throughout the night and this morning, Coast Guard cutters converged on the boat, retrieving the little boy and detaining his father.

Martikainen surrendered peacefully, the Coast Guard said.

Finch was said to be quiet, confused and a little scared as it all happened.

The Coast Guard put Martikainen on a seperate boat when the sailboat they were towing started to take on water and sank as it was being towed for evidence.  

He will be arrested by the FBI on a federal warrant.

Cocoa Police say they believe Martikainen planned the abduction for quite some time.

The Coast Guard says had he stayed on track, it is likely he would have ended up in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.

He had recently painted the boat he purchased about a month ago battleship grey.  Police think it was an effort to avoid being spotted in the water.

It was no match for the C-130's radar, which spotted the boat.

Here' s the official statement from the Cocoa Police Department:

The search for 3 year old Luke Finch ended early this morning. The United States Coast Guard located the sailboat late last night and kept the boat under surveillance the entire night. By sunrise today, two Coast Guard Cutters and a helicopter converged on the sailboat and safely recovered Luke.

Right now, Luke is aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Crocodile which is expected in at the Coast Guard Station in Ft. Myers Beach at approximately 7:00 p.m. tonight. Detective Nellie Woodruff is also aboard the Cutter with Luke. Luke seems to be in good health. Investigators are transporting Luke's mother to Ft. Myers for the reunion.

Paul Martikainen is still aboard the sailboat which is being towed to shore by the Coast Guard Cutter Kodiak Island. They will make landfall much later in the evening, at which time Martikainen will be taken in custody by the FBI on a Federal arrest warrant.

"We are extremely happy about the outcome of this. It could have gone so much worse and we are so thankful that Luke is safe. This was a group effort and would not have been possible without the help of many, many law enforcement agencies" stated Cocoa Police Chief Mark Klayman.

Cocoa PD and Luke's family want to thank the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Game Over Task Force, FBI, ICE, United States Attorney's Office, Middle District, Fish & Wildlife, St. Pete PD, and especially the United States Coast Guard.

Related:Missing boy's parents fought for custody.

Earlier story:

St. Petersburg, Florida -- The Coast Guard is searching by air and water for a 3-year-old Cocoa boy and his father, 35-year old Paul Martikainen.

The Coast Guard is also issuing hourly BOLO's on emergency marine radio in hopes casual boaters will serve as their eyes and ears on the water.

"We just want to bring Lukie home," Christ Finch, 3-year-old Luke Finch's mother, as she clutched his favorite stuffed owl.

The two were last seen on Saturday leaving the Salt Creek Marina in St. Petersburg in Martikainen's 32-foot sailboat.

Cocoa Police say Martikainen managed to elude a court appointed supervisor and took off with his son during the supervised visit at a Cocoa park.

Hours later, around 4 p.m. on Saturday, Gabriel Guzman says he spotted to two leaving the dock.

"He lost his zodiac, it drifted that way," pointed Guzman, "So we picked it up and passed it to him.  He made a circle and I saw the child inside the cockpit."

Guzman says he thought it was odd the way Martikainen had the zodiac, a small boat, tied up.

"It was tied up really weird like he was in kind of a hurry or something.  It wasn't normal to be to lose it right there in front of us," said Guzman. 

Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary, until Guzman saw the man's face on 10 Connects News that night.

"I had no idea he kidnapped his kid, wow... unbelievable," he said of his first reaction to the news.

Others who knew Martikainen were just as shocked when they saw his picture on their TV screens Saturday night.

Debbie Van Skiver, who sold Martikainen the boat last month, also saw the story on 10 Connects that night.

"My husband and I sat straight up in bed and our jaws dropped.  It wasn't even a conversation, it was instantly both of us grabbed our cell phones and started making calls," she said.

Van Skiver and her husband, Jason Taylor, say they were immediately concerned when they found out he was on the water alone with the boy, because Martikainen is an inexperienced sailor.

"I've been in the business long enough, I can tell if you know what you're doing or not and he didn't know what he as doing and that's the scary part," said Taylor.

"We can understand a father's love and passion for doing what he did, but what he's doing now is not fair to Luke," Van Skiver told 10 Connects, "Luke has been removed from everything that he knows, his family, his friends, any pets he may have had, his toys.  I am sure he is a very scared little boy right now."

Finch's mother, Christa Finch, says her son was nervous about the supervised visits because Martikainen hadn't been in his life during his first two years.

The two had been married, but divorced and later got back together before the relationship ended again.  Martikainen filed for joint custody, but due allegations of abuse, was only allowed supervised visits with his son.

People at the Salt Creek Marina say Martikainen has been living on the sailboat for the last month as he worked to restore it and recently painted it battleship gray, a hard to spot color in the water.

Cocoa Police believe it was part of his plan that was likely in the works for quite some time.

The FBI has a warrant out for his arrest because of this case. 

Anyone with information is asked to call Cocoa Police Department.

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