Bodies of missing trio found

Searchers in Foveaux Strait yesterday. Picture / Simon Baker

Police have found the bodies of an elderly Bluff man and his two young grandsons, who have been missing since Saturday.

Sergeant Brock Davis of the Invercargill police said the bodies of 78-year-old Leslie Topi, and his nine-year-old grandsons, Sailor and Shain, were recovered by police divers around 11am and were currently being brought to shore.

Eyewitnesses said that Mr Topi's body had already been brought to shore and was driven away in a hearse.

Earlier today searchers located the wreckage of the trawler which capsized in Foveaux Strait on Saturday.

The 17m Kotuku sunk near Women's Island, 15km off Stewart Island, around 2.30pm on Saturday with nine people on board, including three generations of the Topi family.

Three people - skipper John Edminstin, Dylan Topi, 16, and his uncle, Paul Topi, 46, - managed to swim to the island and were rescued after bonfires were spotted on the beach around five hours later.

A fourth person, Ian Hayward, 52, reached the island, but died later. The body was recovered on Saturday night.

The bodies of Dylan Topi's mother, Tania Marie Topi, 41, and Clinton Allan Woods, 34, were also recovered earlier.

Police said at least some of those on board were not wearing lifejackets.

A police dive team arrived from Wellington this morning to survey the wreckage.

It was believed the bodies of the two little boys would have been trapped inside the cabin.

Rescue Coordination Centre spokesman Lindsay Sturt said the boat may have gone down too fast for anyone to raise the alarm.

"But sometimes that's not surprising if you have a catastrophic event," he said this morning.

"We can't speculate what happened, but we do understand that if it's capsized very quickly, they may not have had time to put a mayday call out, whether they had a working radio or not.

"That's something we hope to find out today."

The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) said it had begun an investigation into the sinking.

National Radio reported that police divers were using special underwater cameras to survey the wreck. 

Riverton Coastguard rescue vessel skipper, Chris Musgrave, told National Radio that conditions were deteriorating.

A media briefing was to be held at 3pm at Bluff Fire Station.

- NZPA