29 Years Later Diving Deaths Confirmed

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grassyknoll

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Location
Hawai'i - Da' Big Island
From the local paper. Rec divers died 29 years ago in cave and just found.
Don't know if any information will ever come out of it, but it is interesting.
Perhaps someone closer the the scene (Greece) will get more information.

For years, Fran Granroth Skalisky always thought her son and daughter were the victims of some kind of international intrigue. And with just the right urging, someone would send them safely home to Sacramento.

They couldn't have just simply drowned in Greece on that late summer day in 1978, she reasoned to herself.

"I never stopped searching," said Granroth Skalisky, 74.

Her search is over.

The remains of her son, 21-year-old Mark Granroth, and her 20-year-old daughter, Jan Granroth, found in an underwater cave in October, have been positively identified, Granroth Skalisky said Friday.

The brother and sister had disappeared while the two were diving recreationally along with an Air Force sergeant on Sept. 9, 1978, in Vouliagmeni Lake near Athens. Jan Granroth had graduated from Encina High School, and her brother attended Rio Americano High School.

"It's a story, but it's a very sad story," said their mother. "In one way, it is a relief that we know they are gone. In another way, it's opened a terrible wound that we had put behind us."

Granroth Skalisky, who now lives in Sebeka, Minn., said she will bury her two children at a funeral there on Aug. 4. They are also survived by their brother, Jim, a painting contractor who lives in Sacramento.

Jim Granroth was 16 when his two older siblings disappeared.

"It's hard to reopen all these wounds," he said.

And there were plenty to go around.

"I kind of had to raise myself from then on," the youngest brother said.

Now 45, Jim Granroth said he can identify with the pain his parents were forced to endure.

"I have two children and I couldn't even imagine having nothing left of them, not even a body," he said.

Their father, Russell, who made two trips to Greece to search for his children, died in 1992. His ashes are at a Fair Oaks cemetery, along with memorial plaques of the children he could never find, the ones he always said were "missing."

Jim Granroth remembered his sister, an Air Force airman, as outgoing and athletic. She chose the military to give her life direction. She was her platoon leader during her basic training.

Mark Granroth, who worked in the family paint-contracting business, was also an avid athlete. He bicycled the Hawaiian islands and went backpacking, said Jim Granroth.

Jan Granroth was stationed at Hellenikon and had been diving for two years, her mother said. Mark Granroth, also a certified diver, was 16 months older than his sister and always a close companion. He had flown to Greece to join his sister for a trek together across Europe, Granroth Skalisky said.

"They were going to have a wonderful vacation," she said.

She and her late husband were told that the three, including Air Force Sgt. Donald Michaud, 32, of Maine, had been exploring caves when they disappeared.

Michaud was a diving instructor and often accompanied Jan Granroth.

Rescuers searched the lake caves for nearly two weeks.

When they abandoned the search, Granroth Skalisky took up hers. She wrote every president who moved into the White House, starting with Jimmy Carter.

Because the divers had no lights with them, she said, she couldn't believe they were cave-diving. Political unrest might have endangered Americans abroad, she thought.

Granroth Skalisky married again in 1997 and moved to the town of about 700 residents, three hours outside Minneapolis.

The ensuing years have not been without cruel twists and turns.

An underwater photographer died on a dive to find the three missing bodies in 1990.

Jim Granroth said he was told that photos of skeletal remains were recovered, but neither the military nor Greek authorities would pursue the discovery.

The family's insistence on answers led to deteriorating relations with the military, he said.

"We just sent letter on top of letter to the military. It got bad," Jim Granroth said.

Greek divers searching for the body of the missing photographer found the remains of the Granroths and Michaud in October.

The Granroths waited.

Official identification by Greek authorities, and then the U.S. military, came in June.

"There's still many, many unanswered questions," said Granroth Skalisky. "What actually happened? I may never know."

Michaud was buried in Biddeford, Maine, on Friday.

On July 31, Jim Granroth will fly to Dover, Del.

There, he'll meet two caskets and he'll take them to Minnesota, a little brother once again.
 
Incredibly sad, but at least there is closure.
 
Closure, good, no speculation required, nuf said, other than sorry, this shouldn't have happened.
 
If anyone has a map of the cave system of the Vouliagmeni cave system I would be interested in seeing it.
 
If anyone has a map of the cave system of the Vouliagmeni cave system I would be interested in seeing it.
The lake seems to be a result of a cavern that caved in during an earthquake, but the extensive cave has not been fully charted. See Lake Vouliagmeni

Google has more info on various sites.
 
Wow. Glad someone was now able to help & not get hurt doing so.

I see this is a very old thread but I didn't mind: both the news of the recovery and of the site in Greece are interesting.
 
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It is always good to have closure and our thoughts and prayers go out to the families.
Cave diving in 1978 was still developing and if not trained properly it was even worse of a risk.
It is a sad story but like many others in the US and abroad the Accident Analysis from these tragedies brought about the current rules and training of Cave divers.
If anyone reading this account wishes to dive caves please seek training.

CamG
 

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