Eduardo Taran, however, was an experienced diver as well as an employee at Vortex Spring. As the sun faded on the 19th of August, 2010, Ben walked down the narrow dock and slipped in the clear, warm, water of Vortex Spring. "He just got himself in a pinch and couldn't find his way back out", said one of the divers who recovered the body. He had a failed marriage and financial trouble. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. Her identity Would love your thoughts, please comment. The .gov means its official. Ben was not cave-trained, he had absolutely no business being inside a cave. Ben reached the locked gate at the entrance to the cave; only experienced divers were given a key to the lock. On August 18th 2010, Ben McDaniel, a 30 year old scuba diver, vanished 115ft underwater in the cave at Vortex Spring, in Ponce De Leon, FL. On a hot August night, Ben McDaniel attempted the adventure of a lifetime. Richard William Stanton (R) speaks to John Volanthen (L back to camera) at the Tham Luang cave area. But when John breathed in again, his chest expanded and he was wedged inside for good. Updated. Despite living on the coast during his sabbatical, he preferred to dive in fresh water, becoming a frequent visitor to Vortex Spring, located inland a short distance north of Ponce de Leon. The Holmes County sheriff's office, which had also been the lead agency investigating the McDaniel disappearance, implied that it had not gotten the full story of what had occurred the night of Kelly's injury and that it had some questions it wanted answered. The cave steadily narrows, reaching a makeshift rebar gate with a chain and padlock, at a point almost 300 feet (91m) from the entrance. Cave diving is for the most adventurous of scuba divers. The death toll for all forms of diving decreased . Other divers saw him looking closely at the area around the cave entrance, as if, it was later reported, he was planning something. His doomed final dive was caught on camera. He came to Vortex Springs the next day. Zacaton is the deepest of five ceynotes located on a large ranch, El Rancho Asufrosa, in northeastern Mexico. An equipment failure caused the rope system to plunge John right back into the same gap he'd been trapped in previously, and the rescue operation was back to square one. On August 20, 2010, Ben McDaniel (born April 15, 1980), of Memphis, Tennessee, United States, was reported missing after employees in the dive shop at Vortex Spring, north of Ponce de Leon, Florida, noticed that his pickup truck had remained in the shop's parking lot for the previous two days.McDaniel, who had been diving regularly at the spring while living in his parents' nearby beach house . The incident was reported on Divernet, although at . It would be impossible to go through that restriction without making a mark on the floor or ceiling. He was given an IV drip and some food and water, and was even able to speak to his wife over a police radio. Please enable it to take advantage of the complete set of features! Ben went into Vortex Spring on August 18th, 2010 and was never seen or heard from again. John Edward Jones, 26, was a medical student and experienced spelunker (someone who explores caves as a hobby) who went cave diving with a group of friends while visiting family in Utah for Thanksgiving in 2009.. On November 24, the group ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking spot known for . He told them he was working on getting certified as an instructor so he could find a job and that he was researching cave diving with an eye toward getting that certification as well. This site needs JavaScript to work properly. Despite nearly nonstop dives by more than 16 recovery divers over a 36 day period, no traces of Ben were ever found.This video is the main reason why I started this channel. Jim Donaldson, a partner and manager at Big Blue Diving, a Koh Tao dive school, estimates that there were just six dive shops on the eight-square-mile island in 2000, a year after he arrived . Was it an accident? At the entrance to the cave is a sign depicting the Grim Reaper. Cadaver dogs picked up a scent along the bank of the spring as well as one in the water but when county health departments sampled the water, they found no indication of a spike in bacteria consistent with decomposition. Very interesting. This is the second of a two-part series about the mysterious disappearance of Ben McDaniel, a certified open water SCUBA diver that has been missing since August 18, 2010. An overwhelming majority of the fatalities occurred in the state of Florida where many flooded caves are located. Nevertheless, police refused to treat it as a homicide, much to the dismay of Lynn-Marie Carty. [1], Upon arrival, the sheriff's deputies sealed off the spring with crime-scene tape. While divers couldnt find Ben, they did find two decompression tanks which are left by divers as they ascend to avoid decompression sickness. RAID continues to explain that the most common . One of the employees, Chuck Cronin, believed that while McDaniel had the proper equipment and considerable diving knowledge, he was often overly confident in his abilities and not shy about saying so. News, analysis and comment from the Financial Times, the worlds leading global business publication He soon realized that very few divers "in the world" possessed the training and skill to attempt such a dangerous cave diving recovery. An experienced California diver who was helping with the exploration of the narrow underwater passageways that radiate from a well-known swimming hole . He accepted the offer and moved into the house in April 2010. ZACATON: The Tragic Death of Sheck Exley. The oldest of three sons born to Shelby and Patty McDaniel, a wealthy couple who lived in Collierville, Tennessee, outside Memphis, he had returned to live with his parents after his marriage ended in divorce and his construction business failed, the latter leaving him with tax debts of almost $50,000 to the Internal Revenue Service and the state of Tennessee. In addition, he incurred a hefty tax debt (est. Ben decided to fake his own death, and is still alive somewhere.More than a decade later, the truth of what happened to Ben McDaniel still isn't known.Disclaimer: I had tested positive for covid this week and was in the middle of getting symptoms while recording the videoso it's a little rough, but there was no way I was going to wait to post this story. Veteran Cave diver Brett Hemphill believes it was likely a painless death. CNN . About a week later concrete was poured into the main opening of the cave, sealing John inside forever. The entrance to Nutty Putty Cave was boarded up and declared a public health hazard. John decided to try and find the formation known as the Birth Canal, an incredibly narrow vertical passage. In 1987, a woman attempting to break into a home was shot dead. MIAMI The former owners of a Florida Keys dive shop whose boat was in such poor condition that it capsized and sank, killing a tourist, pleaded guilty last week . Introduction: As he watched Ben attempt to open the gate, he retrieved his own key and opened the gate, allowing Ben to swim though. Normally, because cave diving is so dangerous, it's logical to think that he experienced an unfortunate accident while diving. One of the experienced divers who searched for Ben, Kevin Carlisle, explained: We may never know the truth of where he is, but we do know where he isnt and that is because of a lot of talented and qualified divers. As they searched the tiny passages, there was no sign of human activity. He was wearing a dive mask, fins, and a wet suit. "It would have affected his ability to breathe adequately.". However, police would not name the individuals who had taken Kelly home and found him there in the morning. Unanswered Questions", "Mississippi Man Killed in Cave Diving Accident", "Questions remain about Lowell Kelly's death", "Parents of lost diver pin hopes for closure on team of dogs", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Disappearance_of_Ben_McDaniel&oldid=1104006595, Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 12 August 2022, at 01:54. BBC World Service. That's practically a death sentence when you're scuba diving, so always be careful. John's brother Josh was the first to find him, and tried pulling at his calves but was unsuccessful. The ex-employee managed to escape into the woods but was left so shaken that he moved his family out of town and swore he would never return. One of the divers is believed to have mentioned that he possibly had a leak in his tank.. 1:38. That being said, cave diving comes with heightened risk. He was descending down towards the cave which starts 300 feet from the cavern. Sheriff's deputies were called about 12:20 p.m. Wednesday to what . Terrifyingly John then slid even further down into the passage and was trapped with his arms pinned under his chest. Hmmmm! Ben drowned in an unknown section of the cave, or inside of the fissure.2. The epidemiology of injury in scuba diving. On the 18th of August, 2010, Ben McDaniel dived into an underwater cave at Vortex Springs in Florida, never to be seen again. By Johnny Diaz. [2], Sorenson, who has been described by the Tampa Bay Times as being able to go where other divers cannot,[2] persisted. The authorities said it was too dangerous to retrieve their bodies, but four . October 23, 2022 7:16 pm. When the footage was reviewed, his team realized that Dave had captured his last moments underwater attempting to free Deon Dreyer from the depths of the cave. They either succumbed to disease and hunger, or were murdered in gas chambers or were shot and killed. [2], Frustrated by the limitations the search had thus far encountered, and increasingly coming to believe that Ben's body was in an area of the cave no one had yet reached, the McDaniels offered a reward of $10,000, raised from money contributed at a benefit held on what would have been their son's 31st birthday, at the end of the year to anyone "brave" enough to go to those places and find it. On November 24, the group ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking spot known for its tight twists, turns and crawls. 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