But after more than 24 hours trapped upside down, the pressure and stress on his body became too much. Lie detector test are easily beatable if you know how. We and our partners use cookies on this site to improve our service, perform analytics, personalize advertising, measure advertising performance, and remember website preferences. His parents and girlfriend, Emily Greer, said he seemed optimistic. BlueTrin; Jan 18, 2020; 2 3 4. Move on to the next theory. He continued Continue Reading On August 20, 2010, Ben McDaniel (born April 15, 1980), of Memphis, Tennessee, United States, was reported missing after employees in the dive shop at Vortex Spring, north of Ponce de Leon, Florida, noticed that his pickup truck had remained in the shop's parking lot for the previous two days.McDaniel, who had been diving regularly at the spring while living in his parents' nearby beach house . [19], There was no explicit evidence that Higginbotham was trying to find Ben and claim the reward. Around 7:30p.m., as the sun began to set, he went in again. Over the forthcoming years, experienced divers continued to search the spring for any sign of Ben at the request of his parents who had offered a reward. Ten people, including two who were found Monday, have had fatal incidents inside the Eagle's Nest cave dive area in Western Florida since 1981. 106,986 likes. Warning: the attached video shows Shaw's personal camera footage from the moments leading up to his death, and they are unpleasant. Lowell Kelly, who had owned Vortex Spring since 2007, was facing criminal charges. The spring was closed and crime scene tape was tied from tree to tree while his disappearance was investigated. 8600 Rockville Pike John's brother Josh was the first to find him, and tried pulling at his calves but was unsuccessful. DandyDon; May 18, 2022; 5 6 7. CNN . Two men died while diving at Eagle's Nest sinkhole in Florida, Oct. 16, 2016. But within minutes he realised he was stuck, with no room to turn around or even go backwards. Trained cave divers who died in the most recent time period were older but little else differed. [1], At the Santa Rosa Beach house officers found his dog, hungry from having been unfed for two days. We know our son to know he wouldnt put us through that again, said Patty, Bens mother. Did you encounter any technical issues? "Ultimately the decision was made that it was too much risk for the rescuers to remain there in an effort to get him out and the decision was made to leave him in place.". Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much One rescuer was able to get close enough to pronounce him dead of cardiac arrest. RAID continues to explain that the most common . Updated. The worst thing that you can do when you realize something is going wrong is to panic. He was given an IV drip and some food and water, and was even able to speak to his wife over a police radio. He found nothing no body, and no evidence of one such as increased activity by carnivorous aquatic scavengers, nor any evidence that Ben had gotten into those sections, such as marks on the cave walls or disturbed silt. "It would have affected his ability to breathe adequately.". "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. My gut feeling tells me someone closely involved with the last sighting of Mr. McDaniel knows more about his disappearance than they are letting on. However, police would not name the individuals who had taken Kelly home and found him there in the morning. Authorities in Florida are investigating the deaths of two cave divers at a wildlife park, the Hernando County Sheriff's Office said. The McDaniels were called, and they drove to Florida, along with Greer, to observe from the shore. )[20], McDaniel was not the only person associated with Vortex Spring at the time facing serious legal issues. The epidemiology of injury in scuba diving. MIAMI The former owners of a Florida Keys dive shop whose boat was in such poor condition that it capsized and sank, killing a tourist, pleaded guilty last week . "Ultimately the decision was made that it was too much risk for the rescuers to remain there in an effort to get him out and the decision was made to leave him in place.". Two friends plunge 900 ft deep into the water of the Komali Springs in South Africa, to raise the body of a diver who had perished there a decade before. The main causes of death have been drowning when cave diving, drowning as the result of flooding or negotiating deep water, injuries incurred from falling from a height, and injuries incurred as the result of rock falls.In ten cases the bodies have not been recovered. Tank one, an "aluminum 80" (80 cubic ft capacity), full tank with a regulator, was found 200 feet (61m) inside the cave. An experienced California diver who was helping with the exploration of the narrow underwater passageways that radiate from a well-known swimming hole . Authorities began to consider these possibilities and adjust their search. 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. "Once John had been declared dead, there were discussions about 'How do we get him out?' The most common cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning, preceded by running out of breathing gas, usually after getting lost owing to a loss of visibility caused by suspended silt. We use your sign-up to provide content in the ways you've consented to and improve our understanding of you. All Rights Reserved. In 2004, Dave Shaw completed a record-breaking dive at Bushman's Hole. After determining that no one else had seen Ben, Taran called the Holmes County sheriff's office. John left behind his wife Emily and their baby daughter Lizzie. Rescue efforts were due to get underway on June 24 with local British diver Vern Unsworth going alone. By Phil Helsel. Thirty separate tests of the water over the next several months showed no sign of an increase in the bacteria that would indicate the presence of a decomposing human body. [1][2] The state of Florida issued his family a death certificate in 2013. Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}304617N 855653W / 30.77149N 85.94812W / 30.77149; -85.94812, On August 20, 2010, Ben McDaniel (born April 15, 1980), of Memphis, Tennessee, United States, was reported missing after employees in the dive shop at Vortex Spring, north of Ponce de Leon, Florida, noticed that his pickup truck had remained in the shop's parking lot for the previous two days. A guest drove Kelly to his home in Ponce de Leon, helped Kelly shower and then placed a blanket over him and left Kelly to rest in the bathtub. 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. It would be impossible to go through that restriction without making a mark on the floor or ceiling. While the annual number of cave diving fatalities has steadily fallen over the last three decades, from eight to less than three, the proportion of trained divers among those fatalities has doubled. Two tanks known to belong to McDaniel were found near the entrance to the cave. Dive-related fatalities among tourist and local divers in the northern Croatian littoral (1980-2010). 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. 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 . By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Very interesting. On November 24, the group ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking spot known for its tight twists, turns and crawls. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. [21], During a chili cook-off he was hosting at Vortex Spring in December, Kelly reportedly fell down the stairs and sustained a head injury. On his nights out with Greer, he told her of plans to eventually start a diving-related business. A few years ago there was a famous cave diving death, the disappearance of Ben McDaniel in Vortex Springs. He had a failed marriage and financial trouble. An experienced California diver who was helping with the exploration of the narrow underwater passageways that radiate from a well-known swimming hole in eastern New . Some of the worst scuba accidents occur because of inexperienced divers making small mistakes. She realized that he had, in fact, gotten very far into the cave. 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. Eduardo later passed a lie detector test. But what happened to a keen young explorer deep in the bowels of Utah's famous cave system must surely take the cake as the worst death of all time. Ben wasnt an experienced diver thus he had no key. [10] At some points, the passage narrows to 10 inches (25cm), requiring divers to remove their tanks, push them forward through the passage, and then twist their bodies to follow. [2] They agreed to put up $54,000 to guarantee the cost of replacing a remotely operated underwater vehicle brought to the spring by the Fort Lauderdale police, in case it was lost in the cave. He had allegedly taken a temporary employee who he said owed him thousands of dollars out into an isolated wooded area and attempted to beat him with a baseball bat to make him pay up. A memorial plaque to John stands near the entrance to Nutty Putty Cave. . There were some rather distasteful discussions as well, things that nobody really wanted to do," Sgt Cannon said. 1 This location was perfect for Ben, who was an avid diver. While divers couldnt find Ben, they did find two decompression tanks which are left by divers as they ascend to avoid decompression sickness. reopened in 2003 amid pressure from the National Association for Cave Divers and the National Speleological Society Cave Diving . )[11] His parents later defended him from those criticisms by seeing them as positive traits. News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worlds leading global business publication Simon Halliday, 49, from Clitheroe, Lancs, died at Lancaster Hole near Kirkby Lonsdale on 4 January, 2020. Hmmmm! [23], Among the divers who heard about the case was Jill Heinerth, a Canadian who has set the world record for deepest dive by a woman. His only option was to keep moving forward, and exhaled the air from his chest so he could fit through the "L-shaped pinpoint" which was just 10 inches across and 18 inches high. 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. Using investigative research combined with primary audio, Morbidology takes an in-depth look at true crime cases from all across the world. HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) - Two cave divers are dead after an apparent drowning in Hernando County, at "Buford Springs Cave.". Something went wrong, please try again later. Bookshelf Cave diver David John Shaw (Dave Shaw) died more than 10 years later whilst attempting to retrieve Dreyer's cadaver. This is the second of a two-part series about the mysterious disappearance of Ben McDaniel, a certified open water SCUBA diver that has been missing since August 18, 2010. Deputies were alerted Wednesday afternoon after one . 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". Conclusion: "I simply see no reasonable evidence that he is NOT in the cave," the Commercial Appeal quoted her as writing in an email. Experience is the primary key to staying alive while cave diving, with the death rate increasing to 1/1003 for inexperienced divers. "It's very narrow, very awkward, and it's difficult to get rescuers down there," rescuer Shawn Roundy told media at the time. Ben was last seen by two Vortex Spring (VS) employees at the gate blocking untrained and non-certified divers from entering the most dangerous parts of the cave. By Johnny Diaz. Training status, safety rules violated, relevancy of the violations, and root causes leading to death were determined. Cave diving is for the most adventurous of scuba divers. 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. There are millions of possible ways to die, some less pleasant than others. [4] A reward they offered was rescinded in 2012 after the death of another diver who may have been trying to collect it, vindicating the criticism of the divers who had warned of that possibility and resented the McDaniels' insinuation that those who had searched for their son at great personal risk had not been "brave" enough.[5]. This was the last time Ben was ever seen. He told them he was working on getting certified as an instructor so he could find a job and that he was researching cave diving with an eye toward getting that certification as well. Armed with flashlights, they searched the spring. Rescuers began a different approach, using air-powered tools to chip away at some of the rock surrounding John. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error. A spelunker is somebody who explores caves as a hobby. 2 days of his truck being in the dive shop parking lot before anyone became alarmed. The Holmes County sheriff's office, which had also been the lead agency investigating the McDaniel disappearance, implied that it had not gotten the full story of what had occurred the night of Kelly's injury and that it had some questions it wanted answered. 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. [2], Ben was 6feet 1inch (185cm) tall and weighed 210 pounds (95kg), one inch (2.5cm) taller and 20 pounds (9.1kg) heavier than Sorenson. As always you can unsubscribe at any time. There were no signs of activity from aquatic scavengers like one would assume if there were a deceased body down there. Whether it's for sport or research reasons, cave diving is an extremely dangerous activity. He inched his way into the Birth Canal head first, wiggling forward using his hips, stomachs and fingers. 2013 Mar-Apr;20(2):101-6. doi: 10.1111/jtm.12011. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the This is the dark truth about cave diving. They either succumbed to disease and hunger, or were murdered in gas chambers or were shot and killed. New posts Search forums. Knowing that divers in trouble will often burrow deeper into narrow crevices such as those within the cave in a mistaken effort to get back to the surface, she revised her opinion. The man escaped, and prosecutors later charged Kelly with assault and kidnapping in the incident. His wallet, with almost $1,100 in cash, and cell phone were in the cab of his truck; dive logs showed that he had explored the cave and a map he made was also found. 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. 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. Other divers saw him looking closely at the area around the cave entrance, as if, it was later reported, he was planning something. 2011 Jul-Aug;38(4):257-60. Man, 50, who sold guns to gangsters across Britain jailed for 19 years, Police accused of spending just ONE day a week fighting crime, Parole DENIED for Robert F. Kennedy's assassin Sirhan Sirhan, 78, Humans could have wings or tentacles 'in the next few decades', Elon Musk reveals Tesla's $10 trillion 'Master Plan 3', Wings and extra limbs in development after Third Thumb success, Sacked OnlyFans teacher left red-faced with gym blunder when bloke tried to help, Mouldy homes may be causing erectile dysfunction and shrinking testicles in men, Elle Brooke mocks OnlyFans rival Astrid Wett as moving like a Wii character, Shapps orders energy firms to hand Britons bills lifeline, Common flu may have originated from a fish 600 million years ago. [2], Sorenson, who has been described by the Tampa Bay Times as being able to go where other divers cannot,[2] persisted. The missing persons case remains open. [1] He died before the first year was completed. While underwater, he discovered the body of missing Deon Dreyer, who had passed away in the cave ten years before Dave's dive. Or something more sinister. Everyone was relieved but then there was a heartbreaking twist. [15], By Sunday, August 22, no other signs of Ben had been found. Replies 39 Views 2,017. [1], In 2011 Kelly ameliorated the charges against him by pleading no contest. According to the BBC, local officials had given up . Equipment failure and training are rarely an issue for experienced divers, while insufficient training is the most . [5], The following month, amid increasing criticism, the McDaniels rescinded the reward offer. One ex-navy diver, Saman Gunan, died in the cave last Friday. In the morning, a different person came to Kelly's home, and realized his condition had worsened overnight. An overwhelming majority of the fatalities occurred in the state of Florida where many flooded caves are located. Training status, safety rules violated, relevancy of the violations, and root causes leading to death were determined. The cave steadily narrows, reaching a makeshift rebar gate with a chain and padlock, at a point almost 300 feet (91m) from the entrance. While Ben frequented the spring, he never received sufficient training and wasnt considered an experienced diver. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. 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. He inched his way into the Birth Canal head first, wiggling forward using his hips, stomachs and fingers. 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 November 24, the group ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking spot known for . There were some rather distasteful discussions as well, things that nobody really wanted to do," Sgt Cannon said. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Despite his woes, Ben had started to turn his life around. Jim Donaldson, a partner and manager at Big Blue Diving, a Koh Tao dive school, estimates that there were just six dive shops on the eight-square-mile island in 2000, a year after he arrived . One rescuer was able to get close enough to pronounce him dead of cardiac arrest. The spring consists of a 200ft basin which leads to an underground cave system. [1], Some other events reported to have occurred on the day Ben disappeared supported that theory. princeandprincessofwales. In the 1990s, 13 divers perished in the cave. BBC World Service. But after more than 24 hours trapped upside down, the pressure and stress on his body became too much. Before Josh had no choice but to leave his brother and work his way out of the cave where he called for help. [1], Shelby does not believe Ben had any intention of abandoning his life. If Edd Sorenson says Bens not in the cave, hes not there. Replies 62 Views . Ben Died and his body was removed as to not cause too much bad press for the spring.3. The . While investigating, she found some unsavoury characters associated with the Vortex Spring. 0:00. "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." 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. A text message was sent to Edd Sorenson, a veteran cave diver and recovery specialist with nearly 2,500 logged dives. [1], But then during the research process, she was able to read Ben's dive logs and the map he had made. He had come to know Ben in the past couple of months. The following is a list of the 136 identified recorded fatalities associated with recreational caving in the UK. When diving, you always have to be alert and aware of your surroundings. He was on a yacht in the Bahamas, leading an expedition. At the entrance to the cave is a sign depicting the Grim Reaper. Ben reached the locked gate at the entrance to the cave; only experienced divers were given a key to the lock. Here is another one from "Disappeared". Normally, because cave diving is so dangerous, it's logical to think that he experienced an unfortunate accident while diving. He was wearing a dive mask, fins, and a wet suit. Ben was not cave-trained, he had absolutely no business being inside a cave. 2. Things hadnt been going so well for Ben recently and he needed some time to clear his head. What happened next is enshrined in mystery. He had left his dog in Santa Rosa Beach and had not given Greer any indication of such plans. He called his mother on his cell phone, the last contact he had with his family. 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. Today, we're covering the true scary story of deep cave diver Dave Shaw. Efforts to develop preventative interventions to address these hazards should continue. Police assigned divers searched for Ben for days. Unquenchable heroism and complex human relationships amid the perils of extreme sport. 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