Ben McDaniel (30) missing since 8/18/2010 from Vortex Spring in FL

[neenerneener]

http://mydeathspace.com/article/2013...ltiple_strokes

this kid's brother went missing and is presumed dead due to a scuba diving accident. like, i can't even imagine how his parents feel. wtf.

http://holmescosheriff.org/press-rel...r-ben-mcdaniel

The family of missing scuba diver Ben McDaniel is offering a $10,000 reward to any person that provides information that results in the location of Ben or his body.

Ben McDaniel made preparations to make a cave dive on Wednesday August 18, 2010 at Vortex Spring in Ponce de Leon, Florida and has not been seen since. Ben was last seen entering the cave at 7:30 p.m. and his three decompression tanks were still in place for him to use during his ascent.

Many internationally known cave divers have made very well planned recovery dives into the cave but still no sign of Ben. Shelby McDaniel said of his son ?I am prepared to do whatever it takes to locate Ben?s body and bring him home to be buried with Paul?.

Shelby and his wife Patty lost their son Paul on September 14, 2008. Paul McDaniel an avid mountaineer passed away at only 22 years old from a stroke and gave the gift of life to four people through vital organ donations as well as helping 80 more with his tissue donations. Paul?s passion for life lives on through the Paul A. McDaniel foundation by bringing national awareness and education to young people about strokes and organ donation.

Now the McDaniel family is desperately hoping to find their beloved Ben who is pictured below. Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of Ben McDaniel is asked to call the Holmes County Sheriff?s Office at 850-547-3681.

and from an article about another diver that disappeared and was found dead at the same spot:

http://www.wjhg.com/news/headlines/M...143598566.html

A Mississippi man is dead after a diving accident at Vortex Spring in Ponce de Leon on Saturday.

The timing is eerie, because it's coming as the cold case of a missing cave diver is re-surfacing, and getting national attention.

Two days before the "Discovery Channel" was scheduled to air a documentary about the local case of missing cave diver Ben McDaniel, tragedy seems to have struck at Vortex Spring again.

McDaniel was from Tennessee. He disappeared after apparently making a dive alone into the underwater cave at Vortex Spring in 2010.

According to the Holmes County Sheriff's Office, this past Saturday 43-year old Biloxi resident Larry Higginbotham also went diving alone and never re-surfaced.

Higginbotham's body was recovered Sunday evening by a group of volunteer divers.

"He just got himself in a pinch and couldn't find his way back out" said Chuck Corbin, a member of the recovery dive team.

Expert cave divers like Corbin are very familiar with the park and the underwater caves. Some of these men were even on the recovery team assigned to try to find McDaniel's body.

He was presumed to be in the cave after making a dive and leaving decompression tanks behind. There's only one known way in and out of the cave and to this day McDaniel's body has never been recovered.

That has lead some to believe the accident may have been a hoax.

"I say there's a percentage he could be there but it's very minute. It's such a small and narrow place, but anything is possible" said Corbin.

Higginbotham's death is still under investigstion and comes about a year and a half after McDaniel's strange disappearance.

can someone find a fb or myspace for ben?

[Katerss]

I don't know how those divers don't get panic attacks when they are in those small spaces. I can't even crawl under my bed without feeling trapped.

[jnicole]

https://www.facebook.com/mcdanielcon...ref=ts&fref=ts That is Ben's facebook. We are/were acquaintances.

I know at one point a documentary was being made about Ben's disappearance. I am not sure if its available yet though, I stopped following the production page because it felt like they were exploiting his family.

[neenerneener]

https://www.facebook.com/mcdanielcon...ref=ts&fref=ts That is Ben's facebook. We are/were acquaintances.

I know at one point a documentary was being made about Ben's disappearance. I am not sure if its available yet though, I stopped following the production page because it felt like they were exploiting his family.

it was supposed to be on the discovery channel, i'll have to google to see if i can find a link. why did you feel like they were exploiting the family? i mean, they were involved with the documentary, right? either way, it is so fucking sad that they lost 2 kids so tragically.

thanks for the link to ben's fb. <3

[jnicole]

it was supposed to be on the discovery channel, i'll have to google to see if i can find a link. why did you feel like they were exploiting the family? i mean, they were involved with the documentary, right? either way, it is so fucking sad that they lost 2 kids so tragically.

thanks for the link to ben's fb. <3

There was another one not affiliated with the Discovery channel: http://www.bensvortex.com/Bens_Vortex/Movie.html
Some of their posts just kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Kind of like they were trying to stir up emotion in his parents by trying to give them false hope.

There have been rumors since it happened that he is not even really down there. A lot of weird things that happened right before left some people to believe he faked his own death, but knowing Ben, I do not believe he could do that to his family. I really hope the family could have some closure though.

[neenerneener]

here's a fb page dedicated to ben: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ben-M...64127273631844

a 2 part story about ben: http://aquaviews.net/scuba-diving-st...-ben-mcdaniel/

another long article about his disappeaarance: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news...erts-disagree/

[neenerneener]

There was another one not affiliated with the Discovery channel: http://www.bensvortex.com/Bens_Vortex/Movie.html
Some of their posts just kind of left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Kind of like they were trying to stir up emotion in his parents by trying to give them false hope.

There have been rumors since it happened that he is not even really down there. A lot of weird things that happened right before left some people to believe he faked his own death, but knowing Ben, I do not believe he could do that to his family. I really hope the family could have some closure though.

oh shit. those documentary people are assholes! wow. i found this comment at a link i just posted:

February 19, 2012
10:32 a.m.
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justicematters writes:

You have Ed Sorenson " the most experienced cave diver in he area" who went " father into the cave then any of the other divers" within the month after Ben went missing. He found zero marks of any evidence that Ben had made it through the last restriction. You have 36 divers who looked for Ben right after he went missing who all STATED THEY found NO EVIDENCE OF DECOMPOSTION. You have the expert who was my associate who wrote the book Diving Into Darkness, Mr. Phil Finch who also reviewed the entire case and said those divers would have known if a body was decomposing in that water at the time when they were searching for it. You have Ed Sorrsenson saying the eels would have been feeding is decomposition was in the water. You have the HRS who said they took water samples and found no evidence of Decomposition. Then you have this husband and wife team of self proclaimed award winning movie makers, with the goal and motivation on their mind ONE YEAR LATER to make a MOVIE giving their 2 cents. The husband thinks Ben will walk in the day their Movie premiers on the big screen. They set up a Ben's Vortex site where divers bash the parents and Robert stirs the pot with his wild theories about Ben coming to their Movie Premier. When Ben's parents asked them to stop this only fueled their fire to attain their goal of doing a movie about Ben's disappeance and throw out their comments about Ben walking into their movie premier regardless of the additional pain they are causing. Who would run a website and sit there while grieving parents are being bashed and stir the pot even more instead of defend them?.....A person with their own agenda of making money from the situation with stars in their eyes dreaming about their big screen movie premier and Ben walking in to chow down on some popcorn. That is just not right. I would think the 36 divers who went to look for Ben right after he went missing have the best information to offer on the sitution. Their only agenda was to help the parents and find Ben's remains if he was in the cave. No stars in their eyes, no movie premiers, just trying to do the right thing to help a family in pain, those are the real heroes.

[Olivia]

I saw Ben's Disappeared episode not long ago. I didnt put two and two together when I added his brother to the site. Sad story.

[neenerneener]

I saw Ben's Disappeared episode not long ago. I didnt put two and two together when I added his brother to the site. Sad story.

i noticed that you *liked* the memorial page for ben. lol. can you make an article for him?

[Olivia]

i noticed that you *liked* the memorial page for ben. lol. can you make an article for him?

As a death article you mean? or in the missing persons section?

[neenerneener]

As a death article you mean? or in the missing persons section?

i don't know.

[Olivia]

i don't know.

I only ask, because in the Disappeared episode, they presented a whole bunch of reasons why Ben may have faked his own death and walked away from his life.

[jnicole]

There were definitely a whole bunch of things that point to him faking his own death. That is just a hard to imagine him doing.


Those movie people are dicks.

[bowieluva]

My neighbor's son disappeared scuba diving when I was in high school. I remember some people trying to theorize the same thing, that he wanted a break with life and faked his own death, because there was no body. The truth is, the ocean's a really big place. It's hard to deal with death when there's no confirmation.

[hamdinger125]

I keep hearing Hulk Hogan's voice in my head when I see the title of this thread, brother.

[Olivia]

I'm just listening to the thinking sideways podcast about ben. Interesting. I really want to see bens vortex - anyone find it easily online? Apparently his brother Paul od'ed, didn't die of strokes and the parents just went with the stroke angle. Also, is his family spamming his personal fb page with ads for their company?

[raisedbywolves]

I'm just listening to the thinking sideways podcast about ben. Interesting. I really want to see bens vortex - anyone find it easily online? Apparently his brother Paul od'ed, didn't die of strokes and the parents just went with the stroke angle. Also, is his family spamming his personal fb page with ads for their company?

I have looked for it online before, and I think the lady that did it keeps it locked down hard. The only way to see it is to buy it to watch.

I participate on a couple of scuba diving boards, and most divers don't think it happened like the family says. I think it's possible he went in and died, but I would think they would find some evidence of his body, even if an animal got his body. It just doesn't make sense.

[Kelly-Jane]

http://traffic.libsyn.com/thinkingsi..._McDaniels.mp3

[Kelly-Jane]

Sorry posted too soon above is a link to a recent podcast about Ben.

[hamdinger125]

My neighbor's son disappeared scuba diving when I was in high school. I remember some people trying to theorize the same thing, that he wanted a break with life and faked his own death, because there was no body. The truth is, the ocean's a really big place. It's hard to deal with death when there's no confirmation.

I realize this is a really old post. However, I'm pretty sure Ben disappeared while diving in a fresh water cave. Not the ocean. I still think he died in the cave, but if I remember correctly, it wasn't the kind of place where he could be swept out to sea. It's a really fascinating case, no matter what happened.

[Olivia]

I realize this is a really old post. However, I'm pretty sure Ben disappeared while diving in a fresh water cave. Not the ocean. I still think he died in the cave, but if I remember correctly, it wasn't the kind of place where he could be swept out to sea. It's a really fascinating case, no matter what happened.

You are right. In the podcast that is linked above, it says he was only certified for freshwater diving.

[raisedbywolves]

You are right. In the podcast that is linked above, it says he was only certified for freshwater diving.

As an avid diver, I am going to guess they meant "open water certified" instead of freshwater certified. There are some differences between fresh and salt water diving (buoyancy techniques and weighting for one) but the general PADI and NAUI certification that most people get is good for fresh or salt water.

The certification that he is missing though is "Cave Diver". That is an advanced certification that he didn't have. Cave diving is a whole different beast from other diving IMO. I have some advanced certifications, but I want no part of cave diving. Most divers I talk to have no interest in doing it either. Even if you do everything right, it's really easy for it to go horribly wrong. Just thinking about it freaks me out!

[Angiebla]

I remember when I went on a cruise years ago there was a cave splunking excursion cancelled because some lady died. It's pretty dangerous. The issue I'm having with this story is the body not being found. I'm sure it could have been sucked up into a crevice, but wouldn't it eventually resurface?

[Olivia]

I remember when I went on a cruise years ago there was a cave splunking excursion cancelled because some lady died. It's pretty dangerous. The issue I'm having with this story is the body not being found. I'm sure it could have been sucked up into a crevice, but wouldn't it eventually resurface?

I don't know, I guess it depends on where it is. This is a good photo that shows that the actual surface area of Vortex Springs isn't huge? So I am guessing it goes deep underground and widens out?

[raisedbywolves]

That's how a lot of springs are in Florida. In the open area people can swim, but the cave entrances are usually at the bottom and go far back under the surface of the land. The state is limestone and there are a lot of underground rivers that have formed these caves over millions of years.