The search will resume on Friday morning for 35-year-old George resident, Heidi Scheepers and her six-year-old daughter.
This, after rescue officials recovered the body of a two-year-old boy from the ocean at Voelklip outside Herold's Bay on Thursday afternoon after Scheepers and her two young children were reported missing.
They were last seen at the beach in Herold's Bay on Tuesday.
Police said Scheepers' charcoal-coloured VW kombi was found at the bottom of a cliff at Voelklip and partially submerged in the ocean.
Police spokesperson, Captain Malcolm Pojie, said that the search was called off on Thursday night, adding that "unfortunately we will have to release some of the emergency workers as well as the rescue teams that participated in this full-scale search since Tuesday afternoon".
"We cannot but take off our hats for the manner in which the search was coordinated which led to the discovery of the body of the two-year-old boy," he said.
Pojie said police divers will launch from Mossel Bay port of entry and will patrol the coastline up to Wilderness in an attempt to find the missing mother and daughter.
The wreckage of the Kombi has since been removed and is now in safe-keeping.
