Monroe County Sheriff's Office
Daily Crime and Information Report
March 16, 2007
Three die diving on the Spiegel Grove
Key Largo - Three divers are dead today after diving the wreck of the Spiegel Grove off of Key Largo.
Four men were diving together off of the commercial dive vessel Scuba-do. They were reportedly advanced certified divers, intending to perform a penetration dive of the wreck when something apparently went wrong.
One of the divers was stationed at the entrance and the other three went inside. The one left outside the wreck began to run out of air, according to detectives, so he surfaced safely. Two divers from another boat went down to look for the others. They surfaced with one diver who was in distress. That diver was taken on board a Coast Guard vessel where Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation was performed all the way into shore. Paramedics met the boat and transported the victim to Mariner's Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The two other divers did not surface and initial searches of the area failed to locate them. Just after 2 p.m., a dive team from Key Largo Fire Rescue that was searching the wreck located their bodies inside the wreck. According to detectives, the bodies are so deep inside, it will be extremely difficult to recover them. More divers from that team will be deployed to the wreck Saturday and will make another attempt at recovery.
Sheriff's Detective Mark Coleman is investigating the incident. Names of the divers are not being released pending notification of next of kin.
