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Family of Zolfo Springs man who went missing during Hurricane Ian holds onto hope

Craig Markgraff Jr. of Hardee County left his home in the middle of the storm to rescue his father.

ZOLFO SPRINGS, Fla. — Search and rescue crews in Hardee County recovered two more bodies on Tuesday, authorities say.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers are working to determine if one body found in floodwaters was a person from inside an SUV that was swept away amid the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

No details have been released about the second body recovered.  

Hardee County has now recovered six bodies following the storm.

The Hardee County Sheriff said, to his office’s knowledge, just one person remaining who’s been reported missing that has yet to be rescued or recovered. He is 35-year-old Craig Markgraff Jr.

Markgraff lives on Bronco Road in Zolfo Springs, a neighborhood nearby the heavily flooded Charlie Creek. No one has heard from him since he fell into flood waters in the early morning hours last Thursday.

From Michigan, his mother and half-sister said they fear the worst. 

"They say no news is good news, but I can’t wait for that," his mother, Nada Rudolph, said. "I want him back, I want him home."

His half-sister April Rudolph said, "You want to stay positive and think good things, but it’s hard when there are no updates."

Craig was live streaming on Facebook as the storm battered his home late Wednesday night. 

In the video, he said, "My car is flooded, my dad’s truck is flooded. We are stuck." 

He and a friend created a plan to rescue his dad who was stuck in his truck outside. But at some point, while outside in the flood water, Craig fell in and got separated from the group. 

"He went out there to get his dad and he didn’t care about himself," Nada said. 

Hardee County Sheriff Vent Crawford said first responders are doing everything in their power to find him.

"The past two days we’ve done a lot of extensive searching in the area with a lot of technology to find the individual," Crawford said. "That includes the use of airboats, raised trucks, and helicopters as well as sonar, and dive teams."

He said the county is still in search and rescue mode, not just recovery.

"We’re not giving up hope that there’s a way this individual survived," Crawford said. 

Crawford said it’s too soon to connect Craig to the second body recovered today, as others in the area may have not been reported missing, as he was.

The medical examiner will work to identify both bodies on Wednesday.

My brother Craig Markgraff Jr is missing, he lives in Zolfo Springs, FL. We have not heard from him since early this...

Posted by April Rudolph on Thursday, September 29, 2022

Crawford said all of the approximately 1,700 people who were in an evacuation zone in the county will have had a law enforcement official knock on their door to check on them by Thursday.

RELATED: Body found in Hardee County floodwaters possibly passenger from SUV that swept away

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