SEATTLE -- The Coast Guard search sparked by a radio call they received from a young girl who identified herself only as "Kelsey" Tuesday night has been called off after nine hours of searching in the water and air, officials said.

VIDEO: Distress Call May Have Been Hoax, Officials Say

The little girl who said she was 6 years old called the Coast Guard shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, saying that someone with her -- possibly named "Kelly," who was her aunt, -- was "asleep in the water" and was "not waking up." The girl also said "we're in the water."

The transmission was picked up on radio towers in southern Puget Sound. A Coast Guard helicopter crew from Port Angeles and a small boat crew from Seattle searched the waters off Pierce County's Fox Island in Carr Inlet Monday night but found no sign of the little girl, a drifting vessel or anything unusual.

The Coast Guard said there were reports of two flares seen in the same area last night, and the search resumed Wednesday morning.

Chopper 7 pilot and reporter Clark Stahl said the search by a fixed-wing airplane appeared to have expanded six to eight miles west where a boat in mid-channel on the south end of Anderson Island appeared to be adrift but later a man was seen coming out of the cabin.