Critical dive computer data has been ‘lost’ in the aftermath of the death of a 12-year-old girl during a training dive at the Scuba Ranch in Terrell, Texas.
Dylan Harrison from Rockwall, TX was participating in a scuba diving programme at the Scuba Ranch inland dive site on 16 August when she went missing during a descent to a 5m-deep training platform.
Her body was later found at a depth of 13m (42ft), away from the platform.
The training session was being held by an instructor and divemaster from Scuba Toys dive centre in Carollton, with eight students present.
According to statements given to the police, one of the students indicated they had a problem during the initial descent to the platform, and returned to the surface, so the instructor surfaced the rest of the group.
During the second attempt to descend, the instructor split the group into two – four trainees with him and four with his divemaster, who would follow the instructor’s group.
During the team’s second descent, the instructor – who is himself an assistant chief deputy with the Collin County Sheriff’s office – said that one of his students descended too quickly, and he momentarily lost sight of the other three as a result.
When he looked back up, he said he noticed Dylan was missing and immediately began searching for her. Unable to find her, he surfaced the group and notified the Dallas Police Dive team, who were training at the Ranch on the same day.
The crucial missing evidence regards the manner of that descent. The instructor’s and divemaster’s sworn affidavits state that the group descended on a line, one after the other.
According to one of the students, however, they descended as a group, and not on a line, according to attorney David Concannon, who specialises in the scuba diving industry.
Concannon said that the Kaufman County Sheriff’s office did not retrieve any of the dive computer data, including the computer worn by Dylan – data which might show exactly how the descent took place.
One of the computers belonging to one of the professionals – it has not been made clear if it is the instructor’s or the divemaster’s – has also since been lost in a 27-metre (90ft) deep lake.
‘This is the first case I’ve had, out of almost 300, where answers have not been forthcoming, and evidence was not gathered at the scene or shortly thereafter, by the people who know what to do,’ said Concannon.
‘It’s unusual that so many people who know what to do were present, and things that weren’t done. And they’re not being done.
‘[The dive computer] is a black box that’ll show you a tremendous amount of information about what happened to Dylan,’ said Concannon.
‘That evidence has been in the presence of law enforcement since the moment she was recovered, but it hasn’t been analysed.’
Despite repeatedly calling on the Kaufman County Sheriff’s office to analyse the dive computer data, and search for the dive professional’s missing device, Concannon says that six weeks after first making contact, the police still have not taken the appropriate action.
‘There’s a family that is grieving terribly, and they don’t have answers,’ he said, ‘and if you are responsible for investigating the death of anyone, But especially a child. You should give those families answers as soon as you possibly can.’
In a statement to Fox News, the Kaufman County Sheriff’s office said that the matter remains an open criminal investigation and they will ‘all available evidence and will continue to do so in coordination with the District Attorney’s Office for a criminal investigation.’
