Nathen Chesters, the 14-year old boy who went went missing with three other divers on Wednesday off the coast of Malaysia, has died. His father, 46-year old Adrian Chesters from Sheffield, UK, and French teenager Alexia Molina, 18, were rescued early on Saturday morning after spending three days adrift.
Mr Chesters and Ms Molina were found in Indonesian waters by fishermen at 1am Malaysian time, having drifted almost 70 miles south of Pulau Tokong Sanggol, the small island approximately 9 miles (15km) from mainland Malaysia’s eastern coast, where they had been diving.
Mr Chesters told authorities that his son had become ‘too weak’ to survive the ordeal, and had watched him die. Nathen’s body has not, as yet, been recovered, but the divers had drifted so far south that the search will be continued by Indonesian authorities.
‘We have rescued two divers that were reported missing while doing scuba diving activities,’ said local police chief Cyril Edward Nuing. ‘They have survived, and are now in hospital in a stable condition.’
Speaking about the missing boy, Mr Nuing said: ‘We believe there is a high likelihood that he is no longer in Malaysian waters based on the movement of sea currents, as well as the time and location where the other victims were found.’
The divers had been participating in a training course under the instruction of Kristine Grodem, a 35-year old Norwegian dive instructor, who was rescued early on Thursday morning. According to her statement, the four divers had surfaced after their dive but had been separated from their dive boat by strong currents. Despite shouting for help, there were not spotted and drifted out to sea, where they became separated.
The captain of the dive boat, who reported the incident at around 12:45 on Wednesday afternoon, has been arrested after testing positive for methamphetamine use. All dive activities off the coast of Mersing have been suspended while the search continues.
