Homicide investigation begins as last bodies recovered from Maldives underwater cave dive
The bodies of the remaining two divers who died while exploring deep inside an underwater cave in the Maldives last week have now been recovered.
Four Italian divers disappeared last Thursday while exploring the cave in Vaavu Atoll. The body of their instructor, also Italian, was discovered outside the cave. A Maldives military diver also died on Saturday during recovery efforts.
Now, authorities in the Maldives, an archipelagic country in South Asia, and in Italy have opened investigations into the circumstances leading up to the deaths — including a culpable homicide inquiry.
What we know
Mohamed Hussain Shareef, a spokesperson for the Maldives president’s office, said the expedition was led by Monica Montefalcone, a marine researcher and an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa. He said Montefalcone obtained a permit for the dive, but there were “certain gaps in the research proposal.”
He said the Maldives government was not informed the group planned to explore an underwater cave.
“We did not know the exact location they were diving,” Shareef said.
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Forty-two people died while diving or snorkeling in the Maldives between January 2020 and October 2023, according to a parliamentary report.
He added that two of the divers had not been included on the list of researchers submitted by the expedition’s organizers.
According to the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and the University of Genoa, the divers consisted of Montefalcone; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, a biomedical engineering student at the university; Muriel Oddenino, a research fellow; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri, a recent graduate in marine biology and ecology; and their instructor, Gianluca Benedetti.
The University of Genoa said Montefalcone and Oddenino were in the Maldives to study the effects of climate change on biodiversity, but Thursday’s dive “was not part of the mission’s planned activities” and was “carried out on a personal basis,” according to Reuters.
The bodies were found about 200 feet underwater — more than twice the legal depth limit for recreational diving in the Maldives.
While the group had permission to exceed the recreational dive limit of 98 feet, according to local authorities, Shareef said officials did not know the group planned to cave dive.
“We are very sure that we would have been able to give them much clearer guidelines and advice had they told us that this was such a demanding assignment at such depths inside a cave,” he told CNN.
The recovery
The search for the missing divers began on Thursday after they failed to surface.
Maldivian authorities launched a massive search and rescue operation involving boats, aircraft and dive teams almost immediately. Benedetti’s body was found the same day at the mouth of the cave.
The operation was suspended Friday because of bad weather. After Maldives military diver Sgt. Mohamed Mahudhee died while searching on Saturday, the Divers Alert Network deployed an international team of expert deep-sea cave divers from Finland to continue the search, with assistance from the Maldives coast guard and police.
Maldivian officials said it was a “very dangerous, high-risk operation” because of the depth, terrain, powerful current and strong draft in the area they were searching.
“The visibility, for example, once you enter the cave, would be almost zero,” Shareef said.
The Finnish diving team was able to locate the four remaining bodies on Monday. Two were recovered Tuesday and the final two on Wednesday.
“As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave, but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part,” Ahmed Shaam, a Maldives government spokesperson, said.
The investigations
The Maldives government is now investigating whether the expedition’s organizers “took the correct precautions” when planning the dive.
“We believe that the retrieval of the bodies will itself reveal a lot, as far as that part of the investigation is concerned,” Shareef told The Associated Press. “But that doesn’t take from the fact that cave diving in itself is very, very dangerous.”
Prosecutors in Italy have also opened their own culpable homicide investigation into the deadly dive.
According to the Italian news agency ANSA, once the bodies are brought back to Italy, investigators will order autopsies. They reportedly also plan to question Italians who were on board the Duke of York, the luxury yacht from which the divers launched their expedition.
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