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Boater's Wife Seeks Presumptive Death Certificate

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

vkalfrin@tampatrib.com

Published: March 12, 2009

TAMPA - The wife of Oakland Raiders linebacker Victor Marquis Cooper is seeking a presumptive death certificate after his disappearance in a boating accident.

Rebekah Cooper of Odessa filed a petition in Hillsborough County Circuit Court on Wednesday requesting the certificate for her husband, 26, who is believed to have died in the Gulf of Mexico on or about March 1.

Cooper would have turned 27 on Wednesday.

A presumptive death certificate allows Cooper's beneficiaries to collect life insurance, among other benefits.

Cooper, a former Tampa Bay Buccaneer, and three friends set out in a 21-foot boat from Clearwater Pass on a fishing trip about 6:30 a.m. Feb. 28.

The Coast Guard launched a search for the men after they did not return as expected. Rescuers found Nick Schuyler, a personal trainer and former University of South Florida football player, clinging to the capsized boat March 2.

Investigators said Cooper and the other men - Corey Smith, a former Buc who played for the Detroit Lions last season, and Will Bleakley, a former USF football player - likely died at sea.

The petition notes that choppy seas and heavy winds caused the boat to capsize.

His survivors also include a daughter and his father, Bruce, a sportscaster for a Phoenix television station.

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