Worst Diving Environment

I don't know if this counts because we didn't dive in it, but we did recover the body.

It was from a swimming pool, where the deceased had been for 8 days in August in Florida. The pool "water" wasn't even water anymore. It had the consistancy of gravy. And the color, too.

 

In 30 years I have never had to do a recovery in a swimming pool - or any other body of water that had any visibility. I have seen "gravy" water (and I appreciate the description) and have had to dive in something I would term the same but it was not a swimming pool. Our team did respond to a potential drowning when a 3 year old came up missing and the family thought she might have fallen in their pool. The guys had to dive the pool.

I also remember a few years ago when a child was missing and a local dive team was called ot search the pool and did not find anything. A few days later the body of hte child was found floating in the pool. Did the team miss the body because they were "just searching a swimming pool" and did not employ the same search techniques as would have been used in a lake or pond? Or was the body put there after the team searched the pool and left?

I would be interested in using the story of your pool dive - or any other recovery dive you or other folks have - in PSDiver Monthly. Anyone interested can get in touch with me off group.

Mark Phillips
Editor / Publisher
PSDiver Monthly
PSDiver.com

 

Just to clarify, we did not dive in the pool. After considering our options, we decided our best course of action was to call a septic company and have the pool slowly pumped (after recovering the body). The approach was effective, additional evidence was recovered from the pool.

We have a training day tomorrow and I will share your request with the team and the case agent, if you're still interested.

 

Years ago a friend dove in a dairy farm slurry pool (where the liquid manure and urine is stored) to replace a pump that was located at the bottom of the tank. He said since solids float it got better the deeper he went (but not the viz). I said: I didn't know you had a full face. He said "I don't." yep...did it on regular old sherwood open circuit reg!!! He did have a drysuit but; an O'Neil 7mil neoprene and that suit was unapproachable for about 2 years. People didn't even want it on their boats. I asked what they paid him for this dive. His answer....... "not enough."

 

I did a Commercial Job on the Mississippi in Lacrosse WI. It was around Thanksgiving and the weather was bad and the current strong an the Viz bad as well.
The worst part was Lacrosse is a College town and every night the other diver and I would go out and get rip roaring drunk while trying to pick up the ladies. In the morning my Superlite 17K would smell like greasy hair and Jagermeister and I would look at the river before jumping in and would vow never to do it again. Well I can tell you that would be it for me.

 

If it is not too late to ask your guys - Yes - Absolutely - I very much like the idea that you had a team who thought through a problem and found a reasonable solution that satisfied both safety and the integrity of the scene. We are always looking for mission reports and stories that we can use in the magazine. We have a Mission Report coming out in Issue 58 in a couple of weeks that is pretty interesting.

Send me what you can off group. You do not have to be a great writer, we have some very good editors who will gladly work with you - or whoever volunteers to do the writing.

Thanks,
Mark Phillips
Editor / Publisher
PSDiver Monthly
www.PSDiver.com