Teen swimmers make chilling discovery in murky lake

Two cave divers were found dead in a lake in Florida last week after three teens made an attempt to rescue them, officials said.

The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office said one of the teenagers notified the cops around 12.20 pm on Wednesday to the possible drowning in the Buford Springs Cave, which is situated in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Park in Weeki Wachee.

The person who called said that he was one of three teenagers, ages 15, 15 and 17, who witnessed a pair of divers arrive at the park around 11am, as per the New York Post.

As maintained by the teenager, the men dove for a short time before reappearing. The men then got into a discussion about going back down into the “cave,” and whether they had enough air in their tanks to complete their dive.

“One of the divers is believed to have mentioned that he possibly had a leak in his tank,” authorities said. “After a short time, both adults dove back down under the water.”

Later, the teen swimmers witnessed one of the divers come out to the surface and saw him floating face down, which they thought he was doing on purpose to look for his companion who was still underwater.

But then the boys saw that there were no bubbles coming to the surface to indicate that the diver was breathing.

“The juveniles swam over to check on him and received no response,” the office recounted. “The three juveniles were able to get the diver over to the dock, but were unable to lift him out of the water.”

The teenagers called of help, and deputies who responded to the call were able to lift the diver onto a rock, but he was already dead.

When the second diver failed to resurface, many members of the International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery (IUCRR) responded and discovered the diver 41m below the surface. He, too, was dead by then.

“Neither of the divers had any obvious signs of trauma and both appeared to have the appropriate diving equipment,” the press release from the sheriff’s office stated. “It is unknown at this time if all the equipment was working properly.”

The authorities later identified the divers as Todd McKenna, aged 52, and Stephen Gambrell, aged 63.

Buford Springs is a network of underground caverns with a 50 m descent, as maintained by a guide on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It has wriggling passages within the caverns; divers must register and obtain authorisation from park officials before going into a likely dangerous circumstances.

“Even experienced cave divers have perished here. Underwater caves, beautiful as they are, do not forgive mistakes,” the guide warns.

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