SPRING HILL, Florida (13 July 2006) -- Saying novice diver Ashley Mauldin could still be alive two days after she disappeared Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard planned to continue scanning the Gulf waters Wednesday night, even as those who knew her began to speak of Mauldin in the past tense. Relatives waited for news of the 28-year-old, a manager at a mixed-income community in east Tampa. "She was a really, really sweet person," said Michael Mauldin, her husband. "Everybody that met her was really touched by her." When he last saw his wife, they were out on a 23-foot pleasure boat called My Millie II. That day, the seas were calm at their dive site, a shallow artificial reef 14 miles from New Port Richey. As Michael Mauldin taught his 11-year-old daughter, Katie, to snorkel, his wife went scuba diving with five others. At the end of the 40-minute dive, Mauldin said, his wife surfaced, but she was farther out than the others. The waves were rolling. Then she disappeared. Worldwide, 80 to 100 divers from Canada and the United States die in diving mishaps each year, said Laurie Gowan, a dive medic for the Divers Alert Network in Durham, N.C. Of deaths in U.S. waters, 37 percent occur in the Southeast. In waters just 28 feet deep , Ashley Mauldin likely would not have had problems with decompression, Gowan said. Joyce French, a diving instructor in Tarpon Springs, can't remember the last time a diver went missing in the Tampa Bay area. "It's shallow water and it's flat," said French, who has taught since 1988. "It just doesn't happen." Divers from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and crews from the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission searched Wednesday morning. The Coast Guard cutter Hawk was set to continue searching through Wednesday night, said spokeswoman Tasha Tully. Considering factors like the temperature 89 degrees and what Mauldin was wearing (a black and blue wetsuit), the Coast Guard estimated her survival time, Tully said, and as of Wednesday night that time hadn't run out. | | Ashley Mauldin could still be alive. But that estimate assumes Mauldin is at the surface. For divers searching underwater, it's a recovery mission, said Doug Tobin, Pasco County sheriff's spokesman. No one had decided Wednesday whether the search will continue through today, Tully and Tobin said. "We're hoping she just got pushed away from the boat," Michael Mauldin said. "She was seen, and then the seas were just rolling. The surface current was very strong that day." He has spent little time these past three days at his home in Sands Court, instead staying near the search site. He and his wife purchased their Florida home in October, leaving Ashley's hometown of Tulsa, Okla. She became a community manager at Belmont Heights Estates, a mixed-income housing development in east Tampa. This month, Katie Maudlin has been staying at the Spring Hill house. Michael Mauldin's ex-wife and the girl's mother, Christine Smith, spoke to Katie on the phone. "She is keeping it together," said Smith, who works in Topeka, Kan. "She is keeping a positive outlook. And I have encouraged the people around her to not bring this up and not discuss it and to try to keep her from thinking about it. I realize this could not turn out for the best and I want her to be protected from that when the time comes. "Ashley was a huge part of her life. I adored Ashley," Smith said. "Ashley did a good job of filling my shoes while Katie was there." SOURCE - St. Petersburg TimesSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
