Diving instruction is offered for all levels; experienced divers come for the underwater wildlife and the cavern, which begins 58 feet (18m) below the surface. His family said the diver wasn't looking for Ben McDaniel, but cave divers are skeptical.The family steadily increased a reward to $30,000, which incensed the cave diving community because they thought it was recklessly encouraging inexperienced divers to . Daily Star's newsletter brings you the biggest and best stories sign up today. Witnesses came forward to say they had encountered Ben on the evening of the 18th of August. government site. 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 . . He said the muddy current . Former Firefighter Richard Stanton played a crucial role in the Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand in 2018. [1] But on the night of the 18th, they instead went back to Taran's house for coffee. Three teen swimmers led deputies to the bodies of two divers who drowned at Buford Springs in Florida last week Hernando County Sheriff's Office. Forums. He came to Vortex Springs the next day. The body of a cave diver still remains trapped upside-down after his ghastly death. )[16] In total, 16 divers spent 36 straight days looking for Ben's body in the cave with no results. [4] (Due to technical issues, it was unable to go any farther than the human divers had ventured. Edd Sorenson (born October 17, 1959) is a technical cave diver known for numerous rescues of lost or trapped divers in the underwater caves of Florida particularly in Vortex Springs and Blue Springs Recreational Park. Cave divers usually place extra "air" tanks, needed for decompression, at points along their exit route so they can follow them out, and not only at the entrance to the cave. Ed Sorenson, an experienced diver who owns a dive shop, searched the spring scrupulously. Stanton and Volanthen have worked together on . On the 18th of August, 2010, Ben McDaniel dived into an underwater cave at Vortex Springs in Florida, never to be seen again. Eduardo later passed a lie detector test. advertisement. Normally you had to have a buddy system before you was allowed to get the group I never knew them to allow a single diver go on their own. 3) Ed. Three tanks believed to belong to Ben were recovered. 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". Warning: the attached video shows Shaw's personal camera footage from the moments leading up to his death, and they are unpleasant. Unanswered Questions", "Mississippi Man Killed in Cave Diving Accident", "Questions remain about Lowell Kelly's death", "Parents of lost diver pin hopes for closure on team of dogs", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Disappearance_of_Ben_McDaniel&oldid=1104006595, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 August 2022, at 01:54. An estimated 92,000 people died at the camp, according to the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. On August 18th 2010, Ben McDaniel, a 30 year old scuba diver, vanished 115ft underwater in the cave at Vortex Spring, in Ponce De Leon, FL. On the evening of 19 February, 1994, Gloria Ramirez was rushed to the emergency room 12-year-old Georgia Crews from Montverde, Florida, disappeared while walking to a nearby convenience store. The water was rising up the cave wall, and Rob returned through the rapidly filling S-bend, so he wouldn't get trapped without diving gear. 2011 Jul-Aug;38(4):257-60. Kelly said shortly afterwards that on that evening, a man he described as "wild-eyed" and apparently drunk showed up at the shop and asked if it was too late to dive; the possibility has been raised that this man, if he existed, may have been involved. [1], With the cave thoroughly searched, some divers began questioning whether Ben was there at all. McDaniel, who had been diving regularly at the spring while living in his parents' nearby beach house, had last been seen by two of those employees on the evening of August 18, on a dive entering a cave 58 feet (18m) below the water's surface. This is the theory that Bens parents believe the least. 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 cave is located in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Park in Weeki Wachee, roughly an hour north of Tampa. Shelby also noted that Ben had seen the impact Paul's death had had on his parents. There was no sign of a struggle at his car and his belongings were untouched, including $1,000 in cash. May 26, 2022. Eduardo Taran, however, was an experienced diver as well as an employee at Vortex Spring. A private investigator they hired believes that his body may have been removed before any authorities were contacted, or that he may even have been murdered on land and the narrative of his disappearance fabricated as a cover story. . Assisted by helicopters, they searched the swamps along the spring's outflow into Blue Creek and Sandy Creek to the Choctawhatchee River. They never saw him again. "Due to the circumstances with his body being held the way it was and being wedged, it was most likely difficult to get a full deep breath," Sgt Cannon said. 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. Privacy Policy. [13] Experienced divers scoured the cave, investigating small crevices and fissures Ben might have entered in a panicked attempt to exit the cave, as his tanks ran low, a pattern found in other cave diving deaths. Ben had found Paul unconscious in the family home and tried to revive him; he later became active in raising money for the foundation his parents established to support research into prevention and treatment of strokes. 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. Today, we're covering the true scary story of deep cave diver Dave Shaw. 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. [3], McDaniel had been living at his parents' beach house on the Emerald Coast during a sabbatical in the wake of a divorce, a business failure, and the death of his younger brother two years earlier. Two cave divers . [5] (Ben's father elaborated the following year that the family was told to rescind the reward while in the Vortex Spring area for exactly this reason. DandyDon; May 18, 2022; 5 6 7. [2][1] Beginning at the gate, over 1,600 feet (490m) through the area's limestone bedrock have been mapped, to a depth of 310 feet (94m); the cave's full extent is unknown. Scuba diving is a safe sport. and transmitted securely. He's not in there. 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. An inquest has heard how a cave-diver in Cumbria drowned close to the surface early last year, after a problem was thought to have occurred with his rebreather, a unit under development. Many divers are adamant that Ben isnt inside the cave. Deputies were alerted Wednesday afternoon after one of three teenagers who were spending the day at the Buford Springs Cave called 911, the sheriffs office said. Taran, who had suspected for some time that Ben was forcing the gate open, went down to him and unlocked it, watching Ben go in and then returning to Cronin. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. According to RAID, a top scuba training agency, the number one cause of serious injury or death in cave diving is not gear failure, getting lost, becoming trapped, or running out of air. Sign up to the Daily Star's newsletter. John decided to try and find the formation known as the Birth Canal, an incredibly narrow vertical passage. [2] The insinuation of cowardice alienated divers who had already risked their lives searching the cave,[17] and raised fears among them that it would only encourage untrained divers to enter the cave and take potentially fatal risks for the reward money. Updated: Jun 24, 2022 / 04:53 AM EDT. Neither of the divers had any obvious signs of trauma and both appeared to have the appropriate diving equipment. Accessibility In 2004, Dave Shaw completed a record-breaking dive at Bushman's Hole. Unquenchable heroism and complex human relationships amid the perils of extreme sport. The SEALs and other Thais inside hurried to clear Chamber 3. Volunteer searches continued afterwards at the spring through November, often with the McDaniels and Greer in attendance. CNN . He continued Continue Reading Two days before the Investigation Discovery cable channel series Disappeared aired a segment on Ben's case, a diver from Biloxi, Mississippi, Larry Higginbotham, died in the cavern at Vortex Spring. Careers. Results: A total of 161 divers who died were identified, 67 trained cave divers and . This forum is for the discussion of diving Accidents and Incidents and has. But within minutes he realised he was stuck, with no room to turn around or even go backwards. This policy was instituted after the deaths of 13 divers in the cave during the 1990s, and in response to threats from the state to ban diving in the cave entirely. 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). Morbidology is a weekly true crime podcast created and hosted by Emily G. Thompson. . The rescue mission became a body recovery operation, but it became apparent that it would simply be too dangerous to get John out of the passage. Stemberga V, Petaros A, Rasic V, Azman J, Sosa I, Coklo M, Uhac I, Bosnar A. J Travel Med. I also break down the different theories that are circulating around Ben's disappearance.The top 4 theories are:1. Vortex Spring is a popular vacation destination hours away from the hustle and bustle of Orlando and Disney World. Before Tank one, an "aluminum 80" (80 cubic ft capacity), full tank with a regulator, was found 200 feet (61m) inside the cave. A spelunker is somebody who explores caves as a hobby. "There is just as much reason to look above the water for Ben's body as there was to look below it in the cave," she told the Commercial Appeal. Data regarding trained cave divers were divided into two equal 15-year time periods. 2) Steve Gerrard "We Lost Our Friend" NACO News May-June 1988, (20)3, pgs. In 2004, Dave Shaw completed a record-breaking dive at Bushman's Hole. 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 Med Sport Sci. A text message was sent to Edd Sorenson, a veteran cave diver and recovery specialist with nearly 2,500 logged dives. Despite his woes, Ben had started to turn his life around. The following is a list of the 136 identified recorded fatalities associated with recreational caving in the UK. In addition, he incurred a hefty tax debt (est. Terrifyingly John then slid even further down into the passage and was trapped with his arms pinned under his chest. They went through their very long decompression burdened by the "mental horror that just took place.". Despite nearly nonstop dives by more than 16 recovery divers over a 36 day period, no traces of Ben were ever found.This video is the main reason why I started this channel. He called his mother on his cell phone, the last contact he had with his family. The spring remains a pleasant 68 degrees year round and boasts of thousands of tourists who flock to the spring for camping, swimming and of course, diving. and our He inched his way into the Birth Canal head first, wiggling forward using his hips, stomachs and fingers. Marson Kay, 29, of Gainesville apparently became disoriented during a dive in Weeki Wachee's main spring and got wedged in an underwater cavern, authorities said. [1], Shelby does not believe Ben had any intention of abandoning his life. Earlier that day, a diver had had a confrontation with several teenagers on the property about their drinking; they eventually left but may have come back in an attempt to exact revenge. However, not only did skilled and experienced divers . Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! In 1987, a woman attempting to break into a home was shot dead. For more information, please see our official website and that any information you provide is encrypted A phone tip line they set up had not received any calls, and no one who had not yet said anything was likely to be further motivated to do so, they said. 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