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This is the latest I could find:
It was one week ago Wednesday night that a Tennessee man apparently undertook a solo dive into a cave at Vortex Springs in Holmes County, and disappeared.
The search for 30-year old Ben McDaniel is on indefinite hold.
Holmes County Sheriff’s officials say they’ve exhausted the supply of all local and regional certified cave divers and are putting out a nationwide call for more.
They say to continue the extremely risky search operations in the tight, confining spaces of the 1600+ feet cave, they need a small highly-qualified expert cave diver.
McDaniel wasn’t reported missing until last Friday, when a Vortex Springs employee noticed his vehicle had been parked in the lot for several days.
The initial search revealed McDaniel had planned to make a solo cave dive, placing extra decompression tanks at the mouth of the cave for his ascent.
Yesterday authorities expanded the search to the property surrounding the springs, using helicopters, bloodhounds, cadaver dogs, horses and 4-wheelers.
The cadaver dogs alerted at the edge of the spring, reaffirmed investigators beliefs that McDaniel’s body is still inside the cave.
http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/101531233.html?ref=233
That truly sucks..
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Yesterday’s writeup:
PONCE DE LEON — More than a week after he went missing during a cave dive at Vortex Springs, the family of 30-year-old Ben McDaniel is mourning the loss — the second in a little more than a year — and praying his body is recovered.
Patty McDaniel said a sheriff’s deputy came to her house on Maple Grove Farm in Collierville, Tenn., at 11 a.m. Friday to tell her a search was being launch for her son, who was last seen Wednesday morning entering the water at Vortex Springs.
Patty McDaniel said she had last heard from her son Tuesday evening. She said he had been living in Florida for the summer and working on his requirements to become a dive instructor at SCUBA Tech in Destin.
When reached for comment, a represenative with the Destin diving company said "they are not making any comment on that."
By 2 p.m., she and her family were on their way to Florida to await news about Ben. But after several days, and multiple recovery dives, the family was forced to return home for more clothes and supplies without any more information than they had when the first deputy arrived at their door.
“I think that’s the hardest part; they can’t find him,” she said.
Ben McDaniel was an experienced technical diver, who had a strong interest in cave diving and had been to Vortex Springs before, Patty McDaniel said. It was also not unusual for her son to dive alone.
“He had a very adventurous spirit,” she said.
This is not the family’s first brush with tragedy. One year and two months ago, 22-year-old Paul McDaniel, Ben’s brother and Patty’s son, died of a stroke. Ben and Tim McDaniel set up a foundation for organ and tissue donation awareness dedicated to their rock and ice climbing brother.
Cadaver dogs indicated Monday the scent of a body below the surface of the water, but Ben McDaniel’s body has not been recovered.
Divers working with the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office recovered McDaniel’s equipment, including air tanks, from the cave Friday, but found no trace of the man’s body. Saturday’s dive also was unsuccessful.
Capt. Harry Hamilton, who is coordinating the search for McDaniel, said the cave at Vortex Springs is very challenging and extremely dangerous. So far, divers have penetrated the cave 1,500 feet at a depth of 150 feet, but Hamilton said they are working to go further in hopes McDaniel will be recovered.
“We’re trying to make it to a point in the cave divers haven’t been to yet,” he said. “It’s extremely dangerous. … We’ve had some expert cave divers try it and they haven’t been able to get any further.”
Close quarters and near zero visibility have hampered efforts to reach the deepest recesses of the cave, although Hamilton said search teams have been a virtual “who’s who” of cave diving from across the country.
The cave at Vortex Springs was opened to divers Wednesday for the first time since the search began. While they work to assemble another dive team, Hamilton said the Holmes County Sheriff’s Office continued the search Monday at a surface level. Helicopters and the mounted posse searched the surrounding area and blood hounds and cadaver dogs were called in.
Dogs indicated the presence of a body under the water near one of the docks used by divers near the cave.
Cadaver dogs are trained to detect the presence of a body under water, Hamilton said, but it is not an exact science. As time passes smell of the body diffuses through the water.
Hamilton said investigators don’t know where McDaniel might be, but need to first rule out the cave, apparently his most likely location.
The ground investigation is ongoing as well, he said, with detectives questioning people at the spring who might have seen McDaniel.
http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/destin-32417-teach-diver.html
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