Buoyancy control and the PSD

[Gary D.]

There is always a lot of talk about buoyancy and in PSD work having good control is even more important.

Being a LEO team any unattended death is initially looked at as being a homicide until proven otherwise. In or out of the water it’s treated the same.

If someone reports a location of, or a diver comes across a body, which happens from time to time around here, we respond in an investigative mode.

We hit the water and do an assessment of the scene, video the area and victim and look for clues and through as we can, depending on conditions.

Quite a few years ago and about half a mile from last weeks canoe accident, a jogger reported seeing something unusual in the lake just off the roadway shoulder.

We respond and I take a look. Yup, It’s a body at about 10’ deep. I suit up with another member and we start the investigation underwater while the Dicks work topside.

We floated a couple of feet above the victim’s mostly nude body for quite a while looking for anything unusual.

I spotted something and I didn’t know what it was. So ever so slowly Don and I back out and have a chat. He saw the same type of object but in a different area. So we grab two film canisters and go back.

Ever so gently we retrieve and secure the objects. Nothing else was noticed so we recovered her body.

A couple of days later we learn that she was severely beaten and thrown into the lake, most likely unconscious where she drowned.

Ex-boyfriend was contacted and had an alibi. But the trouble with the alibi was the tire tracks from his truck were at the scene. A couple of witnesses also placed his truck there but didn’t see the occupants. Still not enough evidence to get a conviction.

What sewed up the case was us taking our time and looking without disturbing anything. Those objects we found. Nothing more than his fingernail fragments. Confronted with that and the fact a nail fragment was stuck in her flesh, he confessed.

He will leave prison in a pine box, as he has no possibility of parole.
Without that little bit of evidence he would have gotten away with murder.

So take your time and look at the scene. Some murderer could be just hoping you miss the evidence that will let them remain free.

Even in a rescue don’t get tunnel vision. Look at the entire scene as your grabbing the victim.

Gary D.

 

[BigJetDriver]

With any LEO team, any unattended death is initially looked at as being a homicide until proven otherwise. In or out of the water it’s treated the same.

If someone reports a location of, or a diver comes across a body, which happens from time to time around here, we respond in an investigative mode.

We hit the water and do an assessment of the scene, video the area and victim and look for clues being as thorough as we can be, depending on conditions.

Quite a few years ago and about half a mile from last weeks canoe accident, a jogger reported seeing something unusual in the lake just off the roadway shoulder.

We responded and I took a look. Yup, It was a body at about 10’ deep. I suited up with another member and we started the investigation underwater while the Dicks worked topside.

We floated a couple of feet above the victim’s mostly nude body for quite a while looking for anything unusual.

I spotted something and I didn’t know what it was. So ever so slowly Don and I backed out and had a chat. He saw the same type of object but in a different area. So we grabbed two film canisters and went back.

Ever so gently we retrieved and secured the objects. Nothing else was noticed so we recovered her body.

A couple of days later we learned that she was severely beaten and thrown into the lake, most likely unconscious at the time, where she drowned.

Ex-boyfriend was contacted and had an alibi. But the trouble with the alibi was the tire tracks from his truck were at the scene. A couple of witnesses also placed his truck there but didn’t see the occupants. Still not enough evidence to get a conviction.

What sewed up the case was us taking our time and looking without disturbing anything. Those objects we found were nothing more than his fingernail fragments. Confronted with that and the fact a nail fragment was stuck in her flesh, he confessed.

He will leave prison in a pine box, as he has no possibility of parole. Without that little bit of evidence he would have gotten away with murder.

So take your time and look at the scene. Some murderer could be just hoping you miss the evidence that will let him remain free.

Even in a rescue don’t get tunnel vision. Look at the entire scene as you're grabbing the victim.

Gary D.

Gary,

This is a great story, and perfectly illustrates your advice. It was good observation work on your part, and your partner's! Well done!

It makes me a bit jealous, however, that you have such good visiblity up there. Here in Texas, in most of our water, if we have ten INCHES of visibility, we think we are lucky, much less ten FEET! It makes taking pictures kind of problematic at times for our teams, and observations are certainly difficult other than with fingertips!

Again, good work! There's one more idiot who won't be out harming the citizens or polluting the gene pool, thanks to you!

Cheers!

 

[Boater Dan]

Gary:

Great job and great observation. I have to agree with Big Jet, in the dives I have done, I have been lucky to see 6" in the rivers and ponds we dive in. One recovery last summer, I couldn't even read my gage on the bottom. I probably swam over the victim a few times before I finally felt him.

I would like some input on weapons recovery. We went for a recovery several weeks ago and finally decided to postpone the dive. The police wanted us to not touch the weapon and to mark the area for later recovery. We had high, fast, and zero visibilty water, which is why we chose to not dive. I advised the police, that if we were able to locate the weapon, I was recovering it period. (They later found the gun in a neighbor's couch). In poor conditions, how do your teams search for automatic weapons that have already been discharged and are ready to fire? Dangerous search in zero vis. I would like to know your procedures.

Thanks,

Dan

 

[Gary D.]

Gary:

Great job and great observation. I have to agree with Big Jet, in the dives I have done, I have been lucky to see 6" in the rivers and ponds we dive in. One recovery last summer, I couldn't even read my gage on the bottom. I probably swam over the victim a few times before I finally felt him.

I would like some input on weapons recovery. We went for a recovery several weeks ago and finally decided to postpone the dive. The police wanted us to not touch the weapon and to mark the area for later recovery. We had high, fast, and zero visibilty water, which is why we chose to not dive. I advised the police, that if we were able to locate the weapon, I was recovering it period. (They later found the gun in a neighbor's couch). In poor conditions, how do your teams search for automatic weapons that have already been discharged and are ready to fire? Dangerous search in zero vis. I would like to know your procedures.

Thanks,

Dan

We just dive with a LEO mentallity so that stuff is sort of natural.

A big percentage of our diving is little or no vis.. The dive Friday was an elbow dive. I saw my elbow and that was it. During runoff time we get socked in fairly bad and some lakes just never clear.

Lake Pend Oreille (Pon der ray) is the 5th largest lake excluding the Great Lakes and the 5th deepest lake in the U.S.. It normally has good vis most of the year but during the winter can exceed 150'. Like a chilly Bahamas.

http://lpo.dt.navy.mil/?

Click on "photos" to see some little fish.
http://www.lpoic.org/

Gary D.

 

[BigJetDriver]

The police wanted us to not touch the weapon and to mark the area for later recovery. We had high, fast, and zero visibilty water, which is why we chose to not dive. I advised the police, that if we were able to locate the weapon, I was recovering it period. (They later found the gun in a neighbor's couch). In poor conditions, how do your teams search for automatic weapons that have already been discharged and are ready to fire? Dangerous search in zero vis. I would like to know your procedures.

Thanks,

Dan

Dan,

At least your search was not as messy or useless as a search by the Texas DPS some time ago. They spent a week diving in---As Dave Barry says: "I'm not making this up, folks!"---a sewage disposal plant! Even with full hazmat diving gear and decontam procedures, it was truly awful. They had two minor suit leaks, and had to put the two divers in the hospital for antibiotic therapy and observation.

The worst part was that they found the murder weapon later in a desk drawer!! "Ay, la chihuahua!!!" as we say here in Tejas!

Anyway, back to your question. If we know we are searching for a gun of some type, we will use metal detectors. Then, when we get a good solid hit, we slide our hand gently down to the loop and feel VERY carefully with our fingertips to check the position of the weapon. This will be needed for our drawing in our report.

We then either mark the position of the weapon with a float, and go get the container, or (with comm) ask someone to come down the line with it.

We then CAREFULLY retrieve the weapon while attempting to disturb its condition as little as possible. We use a sealed container of a type that will contain the water it was lying in, and sometimes even some of the material of the bottom.

The two things most important here are (1) careful handling for safety purposes and evidence protection, and (2) maintenance of the integrity of the chain of custody.

The diver must be able to testify, under oath, as to exactly HOW he or she recovered it, and to WHOM it was handed.

Hope that helps!

P.S.---Your decision not to put a diver in with fast moving water marked a good "Cost/Benefit Analysis"!

 

[GDI]

Gary D. very good point here about bouyancy. Any disruption of a crime scene only compounds the investigation> As a member of the IUCRR I am a volunteer for specialty recoveries. If at all possible we have a video or camera present to record everything we can long before physical contact is made. We need to give all we can to aid in the investigation. In my assistance to LLE once contact is made we have discovered that the scene does become disturbed more times than not. Bouyancy will minimize this.

 

[scubaranger]

Gary D. great story well that guy is going to be somebody's budy in jail. I don't have any story's yet because I'm new to this but this happen to some guys a couple of monthes ago they where in a canal near a section that had water control gates. their used to control the water levels during rainy season down here. well these guys where doing a search and all of a sudden it was like they got violently sucked thru to the other side. I guess they thought the gates where close because there was no obvious current on their side. well they said that the regs and all their equipment was still on but they went for a ride.all they said was "thank God they where ok" that had the potential of being very bad.
be safe, never assume anything, and don't take things for granted especially life, family and freinds.

be safe
alex t.

 

[Gil57usa]

Gary,

This is a great story, and perfectly illustrates your advice. It was good observation work on your part, and your partner's! Well done!

It makes me a bit jealous, however, that you have such good visiblity up there. Here in Texas, in most of our water, if we have ten INCHES of visibility, we think we are lucky, much less ten FEET! It makes taking pictures kind of problematic at times for our teams, and observations are certainly difficult other than with fingertips!

Again, good work! There's one more idiot who won't be out harming the citizens or polluting the gene pool, thanks to you!

Cheers!

I wish we had 10 inches of vis. My Team dives in the Erie Canal in western NY and the vis is ZERO year round. Not to mention the 2-3 feet of primordial ooze on the bottom.

 

[Davie Diver]

Very good description!