Posted on Sun, Aug. 07, 2011
Lobster-hunting trip turns tragic: Bodies of Palm Beach divers found in Florida Keys
By Mike Clary and Ariel Barkhurst
Sun Sentinel
A Palm Beach County woman’s lobster-hunting birthday celebration turned tragic on Saturday when two members of her dive party disappeared underwater while struggling for air, according to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.
The bodies of scuba divers Kevin Moss, 43, of Boca Raton, and Judy Boone, 53, of Wellington, were found on Sunday morning off Plantation Key, near the spot they were last seen, the sheriff’s office said in a release.
Their friend Mariann Radwan, of Highland Beach, who turned 54 on Sunday, was the last person to see them alive, Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, wrote in the release. The victims are the second and third person killed in the last two weeks in the Florida Keys diving for lobsters. A man died during the mini-lobster season in the end of July.
Saturday marked the start of the regular lobster season.
The divers were on the second dive of the day about two miles off the ocean side of Plantation Key at Crocker’s Reef.
Moss and Boone were struggling with Moss’s weights and running out of air when Radwan surfaced because of her own dwindling air supply, the release said.
According to Herrin’s account:
Radwan and Moss realized he was out of air when the three divers were 45 feet beneath the surface. She shared her air with him while they tried to inflate her buoyancy device. But they began to sink because neither could figure out how to drop Moss’s weights.
Moss pushed her away, Radwan said, so that she could surface.
As she swam away, Radwan saw Boone trying to help Moss. She did not see them again.
Two other friends on the dive boat, a 25-foot Bayliner called Bob, were Sherri Makis, 55, of Boca Raton, and Alan Boyd, 52, of Boynton Beach.
The boat was helmed by Dennis Leith, 58, a veteran Keys diver and captain as well as a friend of Radwan’s.
He said he took her and other friends diving last year about this time, and she wanted to mark her birthday the same way again.
Leith told authorities the day turned into disaster when the divers ignored his instructions to stay in shallow water after they started finding lobster.
As they swam against the current following their prey, the divers quickly went from a depth of 32 feet to depths of up to 70 feet.
When Radwan surfaced to say, “We have a problem,” Leith said, he dropped anchor, donned his own diving gear and jumped in.
Leith said he made several crisscross passes of the area where the divers were last seen, but he could not spot them.
He called the Coast Guard, which continued the search along with the Fish, Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office marine unit.
At 8:30 p.m. Saturday they called off the search due to an approaching thunderstorm and low light, according to Herrin.
The divers’ bodies were found at around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. The cause of death will be determined following autopsies.
“In over 30 years, I’ve never lost a person on my watch, never,” said Leith, reached at his home in Tavernier Sunday evening. “But we lost two people and we shouldn’t have lost any.”
“It was a fun day, nobody was doing any drinking,” he said. “They made a mistake and it cost them their lives.”
“It is,” Leith said, “the saddest day of my life.”
Staff writer Philippe Buteau contributed to this report.
© 2011 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/07/v-print/2349031/bodies-of-two-missing-divers-found.html#ixzz1UPku62qw
The bodies of scuba divers Kevin Moss, 43, of Boca Raton, and Judy Boone, 53, of Wellington, were found on Sunday morning off Plantation Key, near the spot they were last seen, the sheriff’s office said in a release.
Their friend Mariann Radwan, of Highland Beach, who turned 54 on Sunday, was the last person to see them alive, Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, wrote in the release. The victims are the second and third person killed in the last two weeks in the Florida Keys diving for lobsters. A man died during the mini-lobster season in the end of July.
Saturday marked the start of the regular lobster season.
The divers were on the second dive of the day about two miles off the ocean side of Plantation Key at Crocker’s Reef.
Moss and Boone were struggling with Moss’s weights and running out of air when Radwan surfaced because of her own dwindling air supply, the release said.
According to Herrin’s account:
Radwan and Moss realized he was out of air when the three divers were 45 feet beneath the surface. She shared her air with him while they tried to inflate her buoyancy device. But they began to sink because neither could figure out how to drop Moss’s weights.
Moss pushed her away, Radwan said, so that she could surface.
As she swam away, Radwan saw Boone trying to help Moss. She did not see them again.
Two other friends on the dive boat, a 25-foot Bayliner called Bob, were Sherri Makis, 55, of Boca Raton, and Alan Boyd, 52, of Boynton Beach.
The boat was helmed by Dennis Leith, 58, a veteran Keys diver and captain as well as a friend of Radwan’s.
He said he took her and other friends diving last year about this time, and she wanted to mark her birthday the same way again.
Leith told authorities the day turned into disaster when the divers ignored his instructions to stay in shallow water after they started finding lobster.
As they swam against the current following their prey, the divers quickly went from a depth of 32 feet to depths of up to 70 feet.
When Radwan surfaced to say, “We have a problem,” Leith said, he dropped anchor, donned his own diving gear and jumped in.
Leith said he made several crisscross passes of the area where the divers were last seen, but he could not spot them.
He called the Coast Guard, which continued the search along with the Fish, Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office marine unit.
At 8:30 p.m. Saturday they called off the search due to an approaching thunderstorm and low light, according to Herrin.
The divers’ bodies were found at around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. The cause of death will be determined following autopsies.
“In over 30 years, I’ve never lost a person on my watch, never,” said Leith, reached at his home in Tavernier Sunday evening. “But we lost two people and we shouldn’t have lost any.”
“It was a fun day, nobody was doing any drinking,” he said. “They made a mistake and it cost them their lives.”
“It is,” Leith said, “the saddest day of my life.”
Staff writer Philippe Buteau contributed to this report.
© 2011 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/07/v-print/2349031/bodies-of-two-missing-divers-found.html#ixzz1UPku62qw
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