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2nd Body Found In Gulf Near Site Of Plane Crash 2 Weeks Ago

Photos from MySpace and Debbie Swartz

Zachary Schlitt and Darien Peckham were on the plane that crashed Nov. 30, the Coast Guard says.

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TBO.com

Published: December 18, 2008

Updated: 12/19/2008 04:37 am

More than two weeks after a small plane carrying two people crashed in the Gulf of Mexico off Homosassa, a second body has been recovered.

The body was found Thursday morning by recreational boaters about 34 miles from Homosassa, the Citrus County Sheriff's Office said. The Coast Guard recovered the body, which has been taken to the medical examiner's office in Leesburg.

The aircraft carrying Darien Peckham of Tampa and Zachary Schlitt of West Palm Beach crashed into the Gulf on Nov. 30 during a flight from Tallahassee to Vandenberg Airport east of Tampa.

Peckham, 35, is a nuclear medicine technologist from Harbour Island. Schlitt, 28, works for Boos Development Group.

The Coast Guard eventually suspended its search for the men, but a boater found the first body Dec. 8.

DNA is needed to make a positive identification, and DNA samples from relatives of Peckham and Schlitt have been sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's laboratory for testing, deputies say.

"Although this case has top priority, it could take as many as several weeks for the Citrus County Sheriff's Office to receive notification of the results on both bodies," a sheriff's office news release states.

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