Arrest warrant issued for dad who's on sailboat with son

Cocoa police have issued an arrest warrant for Paul Martikainen, the 35-year-old father who disappeared into the Gulf of Mexico on a sailboat with his 3-year-old son Saturday.

Martikainen faces one count of interference with custody, said St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt.

Meanwhile, authorities - including the U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - are actively looking for the 32-foot Bristol sailboat the two were last seen in.

The coast guard has deployed a C-130 fixed-wing aircraft stationed in Pinellas County, along with aircraft out of its station in Mobile, Alabama, a coast guard spokeswoman said.

The coast guard is also asking boaters in the Tampa Bay area to report any sightings of the gray sailboat.

A missing child alert was issued Saturday for the boy, Luke Finch, who was last seen in Cocoa wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue pants, and black-and-red sneakers.

After Debra Vanskiver saw Finch and Martikainen on the news Saturday night, she called the police to tell them she'd had seen the pair at the Salt Creek Marina in St. Petersburg.

"When they showed the picture of the father that was pretty much a big shock to me and my husband," she said. "I absolutely recognized him. He was a customer of our company as well as the marina."

Vanskiver works at Neptune Towing and Recovery near the Salt Creek Marina, and knows Martikainen.

"He never come across as being somebody that would do anything wrong," she said.

Vanskiver called St. Petersburg police and the U.S. Coast Guard. When officers arrived, they found Martikainen's 1995 green Ford Explorer at the marina. Finch and Martikainen were last seen there about 5 p.m. Saturday, police say.

Witnesses said they saw the two board a 32-foot Bristol sailboat and leave the marina, police said.

The sailboat was purchased in October by a friend of Martikainen's and is still not registered in the name of the friend or Martikainen. Investigators found that the boat was recently painted battleship gray, possibly to conceal identifying numbers, police said.

Vanskiver said Martikainen told her he planned on visiting family on Florida's east coast for the Thanksgiving holiday, and when she saw him Saturday afternoon, she assumed he'd returned from his trip.

"I don't know if this is something that was planned and calculated, and he's that good of a liar and manipulator," she said. "Or if it was a last minute, spur-of-the-moment, 'I've got to react now' and then he panicked and ran."

Martikainen and Finch disappeared from a supervised visit in Cocoa on Saturday.

Police don't know where Martikainen is heading, said Barbara Matthews of the Cocoa Police Department.

"Among investigators' concerns is the fact that Martikainen has no known boating experience," she said in a release.

Cocoa investigators are working with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Coast Guard and other agencies to locate the pair and return the boy to his mother.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Cocoa Police Department at (321) 639-7620.