On the weekend of August 1415, he returned to Florida, leaving behind a letter thanking his parents for the sabbatical and promising to look after them as they grew older. Around 7:30p.m., as the sun began to set, he went in again. 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. 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). 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". They were eventually able to partially free him using a rope-pulley system. [2][1], At Vortex Spring, which claims on its website to be the largest diving facility in the state,[8] divers descend into clear waters at a constant temperature of 68F (20C) fed by the Floridan Aquifer. On November 24, the group ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking spot known for its tight twists . By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Emergency medical services responded to a call and he was admitted to a hospital in Pensacola. Ben Davison. Belgian Ben Reymenants runs a dive shop in Phuket. To me, the disappearance of Ben McDaniel is cave diving's greatest mystery. Cave diving is for the most adventurous of scuba divers. The body of a cave diver still remains trapped upside-down after his ghastly death. "It would have affected his ability to breathe adequately.". "It would have affected his ability to breathe adequately.". Ben McDaniel was the oldest of three brothers born to Shelby and Patty McDaniel. "I simply see no reasonable evidence that he is NOT in the cave," the Commercial Appeal quoted her as writing in an email. John left behind his wife Emily and their baby daughter Lizzie. Consequently he was fined, and sentenced to seven years of probation. In the middle of the day, he did one dive. 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. Authorities began to consider these possibilities and adjust their search. Dive-related fatalities among tourist and local divers in the northern Croatian littoral (1980-2010). 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. 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 juveniles believed the discussion was in regards to going back down into the cave and whether or not they had enough air in their tanks to complete their dive, the sheriffs office added. News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worlds leading global business publication It was concluded that these tanks had been left behind by Ben. Ben decided to fake his own death, and is still alive somewhere.More than a decade later, the truth of what happened to Ben McDaniel still isn't known.Disclaimer: I had tested positive for covid this week and was in the middle of getting symptoms while recording the videoso it's a little rough, but there was no way I was going to wait to post this story. Two men died while diving at Eagle's Nest sinkhole in Florida, Oct. 16, 2016. Ben was murdered and his body disposed of.4. There were no signs of activity from aquatic scavengers like one would assume if there were a deceased body down there. Tank one, an "aluminum 80" (80 cubic ft capacity), full tank with a regulator, was found 200 feet (61m) inside the cave. The father-of-one's tragic mistake was thinking he could squeeze into the same spaces as a six-foot man than he did when he was a lot younger and smaller. Eduardo later passed a lie detector test. Scuba diving is a safe sport. According to the BBC, local officials had given up . An experienced California diver who was helping with the exploration of the narrow underwater passageways that radiate from a well-known swimming hole . Forums. Rescuers began a different approach, using air-powered tools to chip away at some of the rock surrounding John. He was descending down towards the cave which starts 300 feet from the cavern. (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. Richard William Stanton (R) speaks to John Volanthen (L back to camera) at the Tham Luang cave area. Rescuers began a different approach, using air-powered tools to chip away at some of the rock surrounding John. "If I had to guess his son suffered from some horrible narcosis. [1], Upon arrival, the sheriff's deputies sealed off the spring with crime-scene tape. Ben had endured a failed marriage and a bankrupted construction company that left him despondent. Eduardo Taran, however, was an experienced diver as well as an employee at Vortex Spring. "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. [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. "He was found near a shovel left near a restriction so small that no one could get through it," said Sorenson, who had pulled Higginbotham's body back through four tight restrictions. An official website of the United States government. Privacy Policy. Even experienced ones have died there. Ben wasnt an experienced diver thus he had no key. [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. Maltese soldier dies in diving incident off Marr ix-Xini. What happened next is enshrined in mystery. After struggling to breathe for several hours, John became unresponsive shortly before midnight. A text message was sent to Edd Sorenson, a veteran cave diver and recovery specialist with nearly 2,500 logged dives. THERES NOTHING WORTH DYING FOR it ominously reads. Training status, safety rules violated, relevancy of the violations, and root causes leading to death were determined. "After what we went through with Paul, we know our son well enough to know he wouldn't put us through that again," his mother told the Commercial Appeal.[1]. Or something more sinister. Shortly after, the group of teens saw one of the divers floating face down and when they checked on him, received no response. He accepted the offer and moved into the house in April 2010. Jimlast-minute fill-in, Support Diver Number Six, mere mortal among godshas rescued the boys' coach, the monk who had done the impossible, too: kept 12 children alive in a flooded cave . 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. Prevent your death!' said sign at Florida underwater cave. Josh had no choice but to leave his brother and work his way out of the cave, where he called for help. Others theorise he faked his own death. When diving, you always have to be alert and aware of your surroundings. Ben reached the locked gate at the entrance to the cave; only experienced divers were given a key to the lock. Ben Died and his body was removed as to not cause too much bad press for the spring.3. Deon Dreyer was a South African recreational scuba diver who died in Bushman's Hole, or also known as Boesmansgat cave, in South Africa's Northern Cape. The authorities said it was too dangerous to retrieve their bodies, but four . He came to Vortex Springs the next day. The McDaniels were called, and they drove to Florida, along with Greer, to observe from the shore. The SEALs and other Thais inside hurried to clear Chamber 3. 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. After seven dives, he apologized to the McDaniels for not finding any fresh sign of Ben. DAN Annual Diving Report 2019 Edition: A report on 2017 diving fatalities, injuries, and incidents [Internet]. He's not in there. 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. Epub 2012 Jul 18. His parents and girlfriend, Emily Greer, said he seemed optimistic. 2) Steve Gerrard "We Lost Our Friend" NACO News May-June 1988, (20)3, pgs. There are millions of possible ways to die, some less pleasant than others. The following is a list of the 136 identified recorded fatalities associated with recreational caving in the UK. On the evening Ben disappeared, an inebriated Lowell showed up at the spring and asked if it was too late to go diving. While he was initially believed to have drowned on that dive, and his parents still strongly believe his body is in an inaccessible reach of the extensive cave system, no trace of him has ever been found. "The last place I searched was pristine, without a mark that a diver had been there. [2], Sorenson, who has been described by the Tampa Bay Times as being able to go where other divers cannot,[2] persisted. Some of the worst scuba accidents occur because of inexperienced divers making small mistakes. Something went wrong, please try again later. He had a new girlfriend in Florida and had been talking about starting his own business. [1], She and McClellan turned their private video short into a feature-length documentary, Ben's Vortex, released in 2012. [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. Investigative documents detailing the events surrounding a diver's death at Roaring River State Park show that multiple factors likely contributed to the drowning deep inside a cave . It would be impossible to go through that restriction without making a mark on the floor or ceiling. He was wearing a dive mask, fins, and a wet suit. Ed Sorenson, an experienced diver who owns a dive shop, searched the spring scrupulously. Afterwards, she and her husband Robert McClellan, both certified cave divers and documentary filmmakers, went to Vortex Spring to make a short video. On the 18th of August, 2010, Ben McDaniel dived into an underwater cave at Vortex Springs in Florida, never to be seen again. "It's very narrow, very awkward, and it's difficult to get rescuers down there," rescuer Shawn Roundy told media at the time. He had a failed marriage and financial trouble. Witnesses came forward to say they had encountered Ben on the evening of the 18th of August. An estimated 92,000 people died at the camp, according to the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. Terrifyingly John then slid even further down into the passage and was trapped with his arms pinned under his chest. 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. The .gov means its official. Through the years, McAniff, of Rhode Island, said he has seen the number of diving deaths decrease while the sport's popularity is on the rise. Today, we're covering the true scary story of deep cave diver Dave Shaw. 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 . Ben's brother who supposedly died from a stroke, actually died from a drug overdose; according to one pathologist there wasn't the slightest sign of a stroke. 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. Sheriff's deputies were called about 12:20 p.m. Wednesday to what . Two days later, when a worker at Vortex Spring noticed that Ben's truck was still in the parking lot, the Holmes County Sheriffs Office were called, and a recovery effort started. The oldest of three sons born to Shelby and Patty McDaniel, a wealthy couple who lived in Collierville, Tennessee, outside Memphis, he had returned to live with his parents after his marriage ended in divorce and his construction business failed, the latter leaving him with tax debts of almost $50,000 to the Internal Revenue Service and the state of Tennessee. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. We were able to hold his hand at some point.". "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. 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. On a hot August night, Ben McDaniel attempted the adventure of a lifetime. John decided to try and find the formation known as the Birth Canal, an incredibly narrow vertical passage. BBC World Service. sharing sensitive information, make sure youre on a federal October 23, 2022 7:16 pm. 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 List of the worst scuba accidents occur because of inexperienced divers making small mistakes in 2012 McDaniels... To breathe adequately. `` bad press for the spring.3 John decided to try and the... Mcclellan turned their private video short into a feature-length documentary, Ben 's ben cave diving death, in... With crime-scene tape towards the cave ; only experienced divers were given a key the... Three brothers born to Shelby and Patty McDaniel witnesses came forward to they... 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