Canadian woman presumed dead - Roatan, Honduras

[Bob DBF]

Maurene Patricia Lalonde, 73 (Storm in Honduras leaves 4 people dead, 15 missing - Xinhua | English.news.cn)

She had everything set up on the boat except for her weights. She had the dive master put them in as she directed.

I think she had 14 or 16 lbs.

The DM stated he saw Maurene and she had her arms folder and her head tilted to the side as she was dropping feet first. She never responded physically to his gestures or tank banging.

We found out later that this section of the wall drops down to 400-500'.

I may be missing something obvious here

Almost as if it was planned.

I would guess a medical condition was an indirect, rather than direct, cause.


Bob
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Not getting younger, and facing decisions.

 

[Trailboss123]

After doing a little bit of searching I came up with a few news reports. They stated that they found body parts rather than a single intact corpse.
Hallan cadáver de canadiense desaparecida en Roatán - Diario La Tribuna Honduras
Trasciende hallazgo de cadáver de canadiense en Roatán
Location was close to Hotel Nataly.

The report says that her body was found in 2 pieces/parts and a leg was missing.

 

[Steve_C]

The report says that her body was found in 2 pieces/parts and a leg was missing.

Sounds like a shark. The shaking it does dislodged parts from BCD. Equipment probably now at 400+ ft. Sad.

 

[diversteve]

The paid shark feed dive is off the airport (nearby) It's possible she drifted south and into the area.

Referring back to the chamber availability - it's at AKR on the other side of the island. Assuming they docked near Barefoot Cay - there's a marina there and transferred to a vehicle, Google Earth puts the drive at 9+ miles.

From Barefoot's upstairs cafe, I could see my friends diving Mary's Place one morning - it can't be a 10min boat ride. Here it is on a map since I already had both places bookmarked.

 

[Texas Torpedo]

I wonder if the DM noticed trails of her bubbles as she went down, which could indicate that she was conscious & breathing at that time, instead of plunging down like a rock.

Good question / observation... After going back and reading Terry's account again... There's the answer...

The 4 of us continued the dive down to 80' as I lost sight of the DM continuing his downward dive. My partner Clay dove down until I lost sight of him. I went down to 100' and leveled off. I took out my flashlight and turned it on to strobe and followed the 3 bubble trails with the light. I moved back up to 80' and found that the father/son pair had split up.

3 streams would indicate that Maurene was still breathing, along with the DM and Clay, as the depth increased. Then you factor in what Jim Lapenta touched on, with regard to body position, during the descent... Which, if she truly was vertical with fins down, indicates to (at least) me that she was still in some form of control. Of course, that is just speculation on my part..

 

[Colo Hippie]

The paid shark feed dive is off the airport (nearby) It's possible she drifted south and into the area.

Referring back to the chamber availability - it's at AKR on the other side of the island. Assuming they docked near Barefoot Cay - there's a marina there and transferred to a vehicle, Google Earth puts the drive at 9+ miles.

From Barefoot's upstairs cafe, I could see my friends diving Mary's Place one morning - it can't be a 10min boat ride. Here it is on a map since I already had both places bookmarked.

View attachment 389951

Yep the shark dive is not very far.

Those 9 miles can be 45-60 min drive depending on traffic at the time so the "quick" drive may not be so quick back to the chamber.

Texas Torpedo-the site is Roatan Crime Watch group on Facebook.

 

[Dan]

Good question / observation... After going back and reading Terry's account again... There's the answer...



3 streams would indicate that Maurene was still breathing, along with the DM and Clay, as the depth increased. Then you factor in what Jim Lapenta touched on, with regard to body position, during the descent... Which, if she truly was vertical with fins down, indicates to (at least) me that she was still in some form of control. Of course, that is just speculation on my part..

I wouldn't expect from an experience diver (logging almost 700 dives) to plunge deeper than 170' in some form of control chased by a DM & another OW diver without showing an effort to fin up or inflating her BCD if she was overweight.

One lesson learned here is if this is our 1st day of diving, it's always important to do checkout dive in shallow water to make sure our gears would be functioning correctly, getting proper weights, etc. We usually do the checkout dive in 20' of water to avoid such problem.

I guess her gears will not be recoverable being in that sea depth.

 

[BFRedrocks]

RIP Maurene Lalonde & condolences to Pierre & Lalonde family.

So, it sounds like something happened to her right went she hit the water & she fell unconscious in the water.

This is what I first thought of when I read the OP. Perhaps she hit her head on the tank valve and it knocked her unconscious? She still would have had to have been over weighted with not enough air in her BC to be buoyant upon entry, but if she started sinking, it wouldn't take much depth (as we all know) to continue to plummet at a fast rate. Was there any indication that she motioned to the boat crew that she was okay immediately after getting in the water (i.e., fist on top of the head indicating "I'm okay")?

 

[DandyDon]

One lesson learned here is if this is our 1st day of diving, it's always important to do checkout dive in shallow water to make sure our gears would be functioning correctly, getting proper weights, etc. We usually do the checkout dive in 20' of water to avoid such problem.

Excellent approach. I also like to drill ditching weights on the first dive as the grab is not as easy without practice. I think the first day of a dive trip is generally the most dangerous.

 

[Steve_C]

Was she in her own gear or in rental?