8 things we learned from the Tyler Doyle 911 calls

The incident reports and four 911 calls from South Carolina boater Tyler Doyle’s disappearance help to illustrate what happened in the first minutes of the search.

The Loris man was last seen duck hunting near North Myrtle Beach on Jan. 26.

The first call came from a person on the Little River north jetty, identified as a friend of Tyler Doyle at 4:56 p.m. Jan. 26, according to tapes received through a FOIA request by The Sun News. The caller’s name was redacted from the tape and no law enforcement agency has released his name to date.

At 5:01 p.m., the first caller called 911 again, indicating that he could not make contact with Tyler.

A woman identifying herself as an aunt of Tyler Doyle called 911 at 6:33 p.m. to report the incident

A fourth call to 911 is made by a friend, but it is unclear what time that call came in. The caller said he was at work when Tyler called him and he hasn’t answered his phone “in like 10 minutes.”

Here are eight things we learned from the 911 tapes and incident reports.

• Tyler Doyle and his wife never called 911 directly. Doyle is said to have called friends and family for help while he was in distress.

• The caller from the jetty said that Tyler had put on his life jacket and there was a firearm on the boat because they had been hunting. Neither were found.

• People tried to call Tyler. The friend on the jetty reached him before calling 911 the first time. He hung up the 911 call to attempt to call Doyle again. “I cannot see him,” he said to the operator, adding that the last time he saw him the boat was sinking, and “now I can’t get him to answer.”

• During this initial 911 call, the caller on the jetty tried unsuccessfully to flag down a passing boat. “I’m trying to get this boat to come to me now, but they’re not paying attention.”

• Doyle’s last known coordinates were in the Little River Inlet area, according to both the incident report and fourth and final 911 call.

• Incident report at 6:28 p.m.: “1st patient at Wind Jammer is refusing to go to Seacoast ER and is too worried about his other friend per command.”

• Family quickly arrived at the scene. At 6:33 p.m., a woman identifying herself as an aunt of Tyler Doyle called 911 from the Windjammer Boat Ramp. During that 3-minute phone call, she said she was with her husband, brother and other nephew.

• The 911 call log reports that Doyle’s cellphone was pinged at 7:21 p.m. but the phone was not powered on.

Eleanor Nash

The Sun News

Eleanor Nash is the Service Journalism Reporter at The Sun News. She answers the burning questions of Grand Strand residents. Send your Myrtle Beach mysteries to enash@thesunnews.com.