NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Florida (19 August 2004) -- A Detroit Public Schools teacher vacationing in Florida is missing eight days after he failed to surface during a scuba-diving trip exploring a wreck in the Atlantic Ocean and is feared dead. Michael Pye, 58, of Detroit was with nine other people on an excursion boat 11 miles from New Smyrna Beach, near Daytona Beach, on the morning of Aug. 12. He was there to explore the shipwreck of the Alexander McAllister, according to Gary Davidson, a Volusia County Sheriff's Department spokesman. Pye went into the water but later returned to the boat complaining he couldn't catch his breath, Davidson said. A crew member of the Sea Dogs Dive Center told sheriff's deputies that Pye seemed to panic while fighting the current. A line was thrown to him, and he told the crew onboard that he was OK. Pye again dove into the water, this time without his partner. He never resurfaced. Two members of the three-person crew searched for him, swimming through the shipwreck. They eventually gave up and called the Coast Guard at 11 a.m. The Coast Guard and the Sheriff's Department searched for six hours, calling off the search at 5 p.m. "We had to suspend because the hurricane was coming," Coast Guard Petty Officer Bobby Nash said Thursday of Hurricane Charley, which ravaged southeastern Florida on Aug. 13. | | The Coast Guard will not resume searching for Pye, Nash said. Pye was vacationing in Florida with his wife, Loretta Pye, daughter Michele Pye and son, John Pye. The family has gone ahead with plans for a memorial service. "Of course, we're hoping he walks through the door or we get a phone call saying he's alive," said Pye's daughter Robyn Carroll. A Detroit Public Schools teacher for 38 years, Pye taught math and most recently was the curriculum director at Duffield School. Pye also was the manager of the now-closed 606 Horseshoe Lounge, which his grandfather had opened in 1936. It was demolished in 2002. Carroll said her father had been a licensed scuba diver since 1999 and had been on many dives. He had been on medication for muscle spasms and high cholesterol but otherwise was healthy, she said. |
