This is the first two-part series about the mysterious disappearance of Ben McDaniel. A certified open-water SCUBA diver who has been missing since August 18, 2010. Unfortunately, the missing persons case remains open t
It’s a story that strikes fear into every diver’s heart: going down and never returning. Such is the story of Florida diver Ben McDaniel, who went on a solo cave dive in the summer of 2010 at Vortex Spring. It is a popular freshwater recreational site for divers and swimmers alike. Although he never resurfaced in society, no trace of him was found in the spring or the cave. This is despite the ongoing efforts of police and qualified divers. This mystery has become the subject of two projects released to the public in the upcoming months. One is a Discovery Channel show entitled “Disappeared,” and the other is a feature documentary called “Ben’s Vortex.” One of the industry’s most respected female divers, Jill Heinerth, and her husband, Robert McClellan, produced it.
Becoming an open water diver at just 14, Ben McDaniel is remembered by friends and family as a fearless individual passionate about his hobbies, particularly SCUBA diving. McDaniel decided to try his hand at cave diving, seeking more of a challenge than his open-water certification. This certification required about two months of training and 125 logged dives with an instructor or cave-certified dive buddy. Despite the well-known dangers of cave diving and the necessity of proper training, he went ahead on the dives without it.
On the day of the fateful dive, August 18, 2010, McDaniel entered the spring just before sunset, unaccompanied by a dive buddy. On his way into the cave, he was passed by two divers on their way out. One of which was a commercial diver who works for Vortex Spring. Eduardo Turan had come to know McDaniel in the weeks before his disappearance as a regular diver at Vortex. He knew he was gaining access to the cave by jimmying the locked gate separating the cave from the common areas of the spring. Only cave-certified divers are given a key to the gate, which McDaniel did not have. That day in August, Turan turned around and unlocked the gate for McDaniel.
On previous dives, Turan would sometimes wait for the sight of McDaniel’s bubbles at the surface to indicate that he was decompressing and okay. Turan and the other diver did not wait to see those bubbles this time, and no one knows if there ever were any.
