This is the only information I could find closest to today's date from channel 7 news.
" Updated: 8:21 AM Sep 14, 2010
Experts Don't Believe Missing Diver is Actually in Cave at Vortex Springs
After hundreds of man-hours searching the cave, some are beginning to doubt McDaniel's body is inside. Experts cave divers say the evidence just isn't adding up.
Posted:
10:26 PM Sep 13, 2010
Reporter:
Meagan O'Halloran
Email Address:
meagan.ohalloran@wjhg.com
Vortex Springs Mystery Still Unsolved
It's been almost a month since 30-year old Tennessee native Ben McDaniel supposedly disappeared while cave-diving at Vortex Springs. After hundreds of man-hours searching the cave, some are beginning to doubt McDaniel's body is inside. Experts cave divers say the evidence just isn't adding up. The case is as tragic as it is bizarre. No one has seen or heard from Ben McDaniel since Wednesday August 18, when he was last seen preparing to make a dive at Vortex Springs near Ponce de Leon.
Dive shop employees notified authorities two days later when they realized his vehicle, keys, and valuables were still in the same place he had left them. Since then, recovery efforts have been underway with some of the top diving experts who have gone as far as humanly possible inside the cave, and still no sign of McDaniel. This is leading some of them to believe he may not be in there at all. The International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery Group was here over the weekend to search the cave again.
"We do not believe that he is in this cave. No one else could have gotten to the end of the cave or a perceived beyond without having extra bottles in the water to be able to get himself in that far. As small as the environment gets the further you get back, you can't carry those bottles through that. So he would have had to leave them and drop them, leave them and drop them until you get to the back; Because at the furthest point of this cave, the diver can't move with anything on" says Larry Green, the Regional Coordinator of the group. The restriction narrows down to inches.
Search teams found 3-labeled decompression tanks with McDaniel's name on them, and a few articles of clothing near the entrance of the cave. With the very little evidence, experts don't think McDaniel could have made it very far. Homes County Sheriff's officials aren't ruling anything out, extending their search on land and throughout the park.
"We've had cadaver dogs come to the scene, we've had helicopters, the Sheriff's posse has done a thorough search of the inside of the cave, and at this point in time we haven't had any indications" says Captain Harry Hamilton. Green believes the mission is becoming too dangerous to continue deploying even expert divers.
"There's another scenario other than him being lost or hidden in this cave-- now what it is? That I don’t know." Authorities say they will continue to investigate and are still holding out the hope they will bring closure to the case. Sheriff's officials are considering the deployment of an underwater camera to maneuver the tight confines, not accessible to the divers."
