Other divers saw him looking closely at the area around the cave entrance, as if, it was later reported, he was planning something. (According to a 2014 online comment by his father, he could not find anyone at Vortex Spring willing to be his diving partner, so he did his dives alone. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.\"00:00 Intro00:35 Chapter 1: Ben McDaniel04:17 Chapter 2: Vortex Spring11:04 Chapter 3: The Search17:27 Chapter 4: The Search Continues24:56 Chapter 5: Lowell Kelly27:49 Aftermath As the sun faded on the 19th of August, 2010, Ben walked down the narrow dock and slipped in the clear, warm, water of Vortex Spring. Morbidology is a weekly true crime podcast created and hosted by Emily G. Thompson. He soon realized that very few divers "in the world" possessed the training and skill to attempt such a dangerous cave diving recovery. The Hernando County Sheriff's Office shared this photo of the area near the Buford Springs Cave where the two cave divers died. if Ben wanted to end his life this way, then why would he go back to his parents and leave a note thanking them for giving him a chance, because he could have just dealt himself a fatal blow in the city where he lived before, my theory is that Ben wanted to end his life with- because of debts or problems at work, as he wanted to become a diver and get consent to penetrate the same narrow passages as professional divers. On his nights out with Greer, he told her of plans to eventually start a diving-related business. At the time she believed that Ben, whatever his fate, was not in the cave's depths. Or, perhaps he had been found dead by the dive shop staff, who feared the consequences of that discovery. Med Sport Sci. 1) Karen Thurston "Cave diver feared dead in accident" Tallahassee Democrat May 16, 1988. Lie detector test are easily beatable if you know how. Although the McDaniels continue to believe Ben's body is in an area of the cave beyond the reach of current search capabilities, they have also entertained the possibility that his death was not an accident but the result of foul play. [2], Cronin and fellow employee Eduardo Taran, on their way back from a dive themselves something they often did on Wednesdays after the shop closed saw Ben as he began descending, with his lights on and wearing a helmet, suggesting he was venturing into the cave. He was also still grieving for his younger brother Paul, a frequent rock climbing partner during their youth, who died in 2008 at the age of 22 from a stroke. [5], The following month, amid increasing criticism, the McDaniels rescinded the reward offer. Ben must have gone deeper than anyone expected. [12] He spent much of the rest of the afternoon by himself alongside the spring, witnesses said, testing equipment and making notes in his dive log. For more information, please see our After resurfacing he filled his tanks at the dive shop, a transaction recorded on security cameras (it is not known what he filled those tanks with). 2. When the footage was reviewed, his team realized that Dave had captured his last moments underwater attempting to free Deon Dreyer from the depths of the cave. In February 2014 two divers died at a depth of more than 100m in a huge cave system in Norway. On the 18th of August, 2010, Ben McDaniel dived into an underwater cave at Vortex Springs in Florida, never to be seen again. 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When tested, the tanks were found to contain normal air, not the specialized gas mix required for diving at depth. Absolutely. DAN Divers Alert Network; Deaths; epidemiology; recreational diving; root cause analysis; technical diving. It considers all the theories regarding its subject's disappearance: an accident as originally believed, a murder or coverup of the accident as the McDaniels have sometimes alleged, and the possibility of a staged disappearance to allow Ben to escape his problems, which McClellan believes. According to the . A massive rescue expedition was launched to pull out a man trapped in one of Utah's narrowest caves, but heartbreakingly John Edward Jones was unable to be saved and his body is still inside, Don't miss a thing! Lengthy searches have only located some anomalously placed and filled decompression tanks; many of the divers who took part in those searches believe that if McDaniel is indeed dead, his body is not in the cave as he was too large to enter its narrower passages. A decades-old mystery surrounding the death of a Florida cave diver has been solved by a simple experiment by three scientists in a lab at Florida State. Emily was also expecting their second child at the time, a boy who was born the following year and named after his dad. While investigating, she found some unsavoury characters associated with the Vortex Spring. According to CaveDivers.com.au, 368 cave divers died between 1969 and 2007. [2][1], Relocating to the Gulf Coast allowed Ben to indulge in his preferred hobby, scuba diving. "[1], The McDaniels did what they could to help the search. Keywords: [2][1] Later, it was revealed that Paul's cause of death was "anoxic encephalopathy due to combined drug (opiate/benzodiazepine) toxicity", [6] a drug overdose, not a stroke. One ex-navy diver, Saman Gunan, died in the cave last Friday. "It's a really tight spot, but we've been able to get around him. On August 20, 2010, a call went out to cave divers in the region surrounding Vortex Spring, Florida that a diver was missing, and in all likelihood, a body needed to be recovered from . Yesterday at 8:16 AM. Introduction: That's right, the second most dangerous extreme sports by death rate statistics, cave diving. Richard William Stanton (R) speaks to John Volanthen (L back to camera) at the Tham Luang cave area. He accepted the offer and moved into the house in April 2010. 4. The body of a cave diver still remains trapped upside-down after his ghastly death. A 10-year estimate of the incidence of decompression illness in a discrete group of recreational cave divers in Australia. Seeing a massive great white shark ambushing Ben and dragging him off mid-sentence makes for a terrifying jolt, but the subsequent grey blur could hardly be called chilling. "It's very narrow, very awkward, and it's difficult to get rescuers down there," rescuer Shawn Roundy told media at the time. you'd be dead a long time ago," diver Ben Reymenants, who was part of the rescue mission, says. 1:38. There are millions of possible ways to die, some less pleasant than others. Warning: Do not read this story if you're claustrophobic. document.getElementById("ak_js_1").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); document.getElementById("ak_js_2").setAttribute("value",(new Date()).getTime()); My husband used to dive that. Without cave diving training, Sorenson said, there was no way Ben could have gotten through some of the narrower passages, called restrictions by divers, in the cave. The authorities said it was too dangerous to retrieve their bodies, but four . . News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worlds leading global business publication "Not only did it endanger the lives of divers who would risk going farther than they should," said Sorenson, who was by then even more firmly convinced that their son had not died in the cave, "it put all of our lives at risk because we have to go in to recover the bodies." Based on these circumstances, police and dive shop employees assumed that he had never resurfaced and had in all probability drowned somewhere in the cave trying to get out. "Once John had been declared dead, there were discussions about 'How do we get him out?' In February 2014 two divers died at a depth of more than 100m in a huge cave system in Norway. A well planned hoax? There were no marks on the limestone where a divers helmet or tank would have scraped the cave ceiling. Members of a specialized cave diving rescue team responded to the scene and found the second diver, also deceased, more than 130 feet below the surface, authorities said. In addition to the accident and murder theories, the documentary also considers the possibility that Ben staged the disappearance to escape a troubled recent past that included a divorce and financial setbacks. Trained cave divers who died in the most recent time period were older but little else differed. 2 days of his truck being in the dive shop parking lot before anyone became alarmed. "He's not in great shape physically, there's a lot of pressure on his upper body and back but he's been amazingly resilient and he has incredibly high spirits under the circumstances," Sgt Spencer Cannon said at the time. A segment of Investigation Discovery's Disappeared has been devoted to the case, as well as Ben's Vortex, a documentary co-directed by diver Jill Heinerth. Shane Thompson, an experienced scuba diver with a passion for cave explorations, died at the Blue Hole State Park when the 43-year-old father and husband got lost and trapped in an unmarked . The man escaped, and prosecutors later charged Kelly with assault and kidnapping in the incident. [2], McDaniel's dives at the site were regular enough that the dive shop employees and other frequent visitors came to know him. He inched his way into the Birth Canal head first, wiggling forward using his hips, stomachs and fingers. Yes, Thai Cave Rescue is based on the true story of the rescue of 12 Thai boys from youth soccer team the Wild Boars and their coach from the Tham Luang Cave, between June 23 and July 10, 2018. We were able to hold his hand at some point.". Whether it's for sport or research reasons, cave diving is an extremely dangerous activity. Lowell Kelly, who had owned Vortex Spring since 2007, was facing criminal charges. John Edward Jones, 26, was a medical student and experienced spelunker (someone who explores caves as a hobby) who went cave diving with a group of friends while visiting family in Utah for Thanksgiving in 2009. The dive shop withheld the gate key, unless a diver showed proof of cave diving certification, which requires two months' training including 125 dives with an instructor or certified diving partner. The McDaniels devoted their family's extensive financial resources to the search, at one point guaranteeing the replacement cost of a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV). [2], The day had been hot, with temperatures around 90F (32C), and as evening came Ben began preparing for another dive. Others, including Cronin and Kelly, suggested he had staged his own disappearance to start his life over under another identity and escape his past troubles. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal The .gov means its official. He was wearing a dive mask, fins, and a wet suit. BlueTrin; Jan 18, 2020; 2 3 4. The McDaniels began considering the possibility that he had died as a result of foul play, and that his diving disappearance was staged to cover up a crime. Something went wrong, please try again later. Warning: the attached video shows Shaw's personal camera footage from the moments leading up to his death, and they are unpleasant. A true story of death and survival in the world's most dangerous sport, cave diving. Updated. Experience is the primary key to staying alive while cave diving, with the death rate increasing to 1/1003 for inexperienced divers. Rescuers from the Utah County Sheriff's Office arrived and began a complicated extraction attempt, made worse by the fact that John was in "absolutely the worst spot in the cave". On Valentine's Day of 2000, 9-year-old Asha Degree packed her bags in the middle of On December, 24, 1945, a fire destroyed the Sodder family's home in Fayetteville, West Virginia, Dorothy was harassed relentlessly by a terrifying stalker who ultimately abducted and killed her. [2] That opinion, the Memphis Commercial Appeal later reported, was shared by posters on a scuba diving website, scubaboard.com, who had also met Ben during trips to Vortex Spring. [1], In 2011 Kelly ameliorated the charges against him by pleading no contest. By the dive shop staff, who had owned Vortex Spring since 2007, was facing criminal.... And named after his dad in Australia diving is an extremely dangerous activity what. In his preferred hobby, scuba diving true crime podcast created and hosted by Emily G. 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