MIAMI — Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez was seen at a Miami River bar and may have argued with a girlfriend in the hours before his boat crashed into a jetty off South Beach on Sunday morning, killing him and two friends.

Fernandez, 24, died when his 32-foot SeaVee “Kaught Looking” slammed into the Government Cut north jetty at a high speed, investigators say. He died in the crash along with Emilio Jesus Macias, 27, and Eduardo Rivero, 25. The incident remains under investigation by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission, which changed its story Monday and acknowledged that the boat belonged to Fernandez.

Miami Marlins players and coaches, all wearing Jose Fernandez's uniform No. 16, gather around the mound prior to Monday's game against the New York Mets at Miami. Associated Press/Lynne Sladky

Investigators have not indicated what the trio was doing, or where they were going when their boat, headed south, plowed into the dark rocks that jut east into the ocean from South Pointe Park after 3 a.m. But the Miami Herald confirmed that Fernandez was at American Social Bar & Kitchen in Brickell sometime overnight. A spokesperson for the bar said there was no timeline for his appearance, but acknowledged in a statement attributed to an unidentified manager that he was there, as first reported by TMZ.com.

“Jose Fernandez was a guest at American Social. We would like to extend our sincerest condolences, thoughts and prayers to the families and friends who share in the loss of the three victims involved in this tragic boating accident and to the Miami Marlins organization,” the statement said.

The confirmation of Fernandez’s whereabouts was just one of several details to trickle out following the violent crash, which ripped the fiberglass from the left side of the hull and flipped the vessel onto the jetty rocks. Divers found two men trapped beneath the boat while a third was thrown from the vessel.

Initially, an FWC officer said the boat was not Fernandez’s, but belonged to “a friend of Jose’s who is very well connected to several Marlins players.” Officer Lorenzo Veloz said he’d seen the boat several times, and that Fernandez was never behind the wheel.

Though there is no criminal case – everyone in the accident is dead and there would be no one to charge – the FWC turned to prosecutors to draft a search warrant to search the boat, in an abundance of caution. A Miami-Dade State Attorney’s spokesman would not talk specifics.

In a press release, FWC Officer Rob Klepper confirmed Macias and Rivero were also aboard Fernandez’s boat Sunday morning. The two friends were both graduates of G. Holmes Braddock Senior High School and both have studied psychology at Florida International University – Rivero was still attending.

Macias, the son of a Miami-Dade police detective, worked at Wells Fargo Advisors. Rivero, an avid boxer, worked for Carnival Cruises.

It’s not clear if the two friends were with Fernandez when he left the bar.

Klepper declined to discuss whether they were looking into Fernandez’s appearance at American Social. He also declined to discuss whether investigators were aware of a Sunday Instagram post from Will Bernal, a friend of Rivero’s who said Fernandez was upset about something before the trio boarded his boat.

“Try to keep him close to shore if you go out,” Bernal texted Rivero.

“Trust me it’s not my time yet,” Rivero responded.

“I know but try to keep Jose cool, tell him what I said,” Bernal wrote back.

In an interview with the Miami Herald, Bernal said Rivero had only met Fernandez within the past few months and had actually left a birthday party late Saturday night to hang out with the Marlins superstar, “who was really stressed out.”

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