American Missing During A Dive in Indonesian Province of Maluku

KOMPAS.com- American tourists Kevin Scott Pool and his wife Carol Marie or Laila might have thought their dive in Ambon Bay last August 7 would be an idyllic highlight of their vacation in the Indonesian province of Maluku.

Instead, the two found their descent to the bay’s clear waters plummeting into a nightmare after Carol Marie disappeared during the dive.

The 56-year-old has yet to be found over the weekend, despite a manhunt involving police and military personnel, the National Search and Rescue Agency [Basarnas], and local divers.

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Kevin said the two went on their dive at Amahusu village.

“I dived an hour ahead of Carol,” he recalled to Kompas TV. “I actually took some photos and videos [of Carol] before we both headed to the surface.”

However, that was the last the 57-year-old from California saw of his wife.

“[Kevin] maintained he surfaced on the assumption that [Carol] will join him after she finished her dive,” said Djunaidi, the head of Ambon’s Basarnas branch.

“He realized something was wrong when she never surfaced. Basarnas got on the scene after he reported her missing.”

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Djunaidi added that Basarnas could not find Carol on the first day of the search. “We coordinated a bigger search with 20 professional divers” he said.

“They comprised of six Indonesian Marine frogmen, four divers from Basarnas Ambon, one Maritime Police diver and nine volunteers from the various diving communities. The local Army and Marine commanders also took part in the rescue operation.”

Djunaidi pointed out that the teams intensified their search on August 9.

“We extended the search radius by 400 meters from the area where [Carol Marie] vanished,” he stated. “We presumed the undercurrent dragged her from the original spot where she went missing.”

Djunaidi noted that the natural conditions hindered the rescue effort.