Australia is a place people associate with beauty as its picturesque views and sunny weather make it a dream destination for many. For Tom and Eileen Lonergan this dream holiday would turn into a nightmare.
From Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tom (b. December 28 1964) and Eileen Lonergan (b. March 3 1969) met at Louisiana State University and were married in Jefferson, Texas on the 24 June 1988. The couple were described as "young, idealistic and in love with each other." Eileen was already an avid diver and soon got her husband loving the hobby as well.
The couple were on their way home from Fiji where they had spent time serving in the Peace Corps when they decided to stop in Queensland, Australia for a chance to see the world famous Great Barrier Reef. It was on January 25 1998 that the couple had chosen diving company Outer Edge to take them to the popular St. Crispins Reef. Travelling with a group of fellow divers the captain Geoffrey Nairn took them 25 miles off the coast of Queensland.
The group put on their diving gear and jump into the ocean to explore. After being underwater and enjoying the reef Tom and Eileen resurface and find no one, none of their fellow divers and no boat. They had been left behind in the ocean. Hours ticked by and the couple realise no one is coming back for them and the night time is coming on fast.
Outer Edge had 26 passengers that day and after three dives the crew did a head count before heading back to land. There are reports of another couple jumping back in the ocean and then being counted again which is why the Lonergan's were missed but this isn't clear if that is the case.
Oblivious to the peril of the Lonergan's, the Outer Edge boat returned to the same site a day later. A diver from that day came across dive weights on the ocean floor, the crew thought of this as a bonus find and thought no more of it. It was now two days since Tom and Eileen had been left behind that it was discovered they were missing.
Nairn had found a bag aboard the boat containing the couples personal belongings, wallets and passports, realising what had happened he notified the authorities. A massive search was called with air and sea rescue teams scrambling to find the couple. The search was three days long and involved people from the Navy and civilians. Some of the Lonergan's diving gear washed ashore six months later in June 1998 on a Port Douglas beach, approximately 75 miles away from where they went missing. The gear found included, inflatable dive jackets marked with their names, compressed air tanks and one of Eileen's fins and a weathered dive slate, used by divers to write down messages while underwater, it read:
"Monday Jan 26; 1998 08am. To anyone who can help us: We have been abandoned on A(gin) court reef by MV Outer Edge 25 Jan 1998 3pm. Please help to rescue us before we die. Help!!!".
In February 1998, a female wetsuit matching Eileen's washed ashore in North Queensland. Examinations showed that barnacle growth on the suit determined that it had been in the water since January. It also had tears along the buttock and armpit areas, these are presumed to be from coming into contact with coral.
Sadly, Tom and Eileen's bodies have never been found, they were only 33 and 28 years old. Speculation ran rife with the case as to what fate befell the couple. Investigators had found the couples diaries and were concerned by some of the entires, Tom seemed to be depressed, he wrote only two weeks before the incident that he wished to die a "quick painless death". Eileen wrote about Tom's apparent death wish as well stating "Tom's not suicidal, but he's got a death wish that could lead him to what he desires and I could get caught in that". Both expressed dislike in their teaching jobs as well, it seemed the Lonergan's were going through a tough time. Their parents have disputed the theory that Tom may have planned a murder-suicide and have said that the entries have been taken out of context.
Another theory is that the couple staged their disappearance but their bank accounts have not been touched since and neither life insurance policies have been claimed and planning this would have been impossible as too many people were involved. The general theory for the couples fate is that without food or fresh water for two days they became quickly dehydrated and disorientated and succumbed to the elements and drowned or the more sinister theory is that they fell victim to sharks. Eileen's father, John Hains, later stated his belief that his daughter and her husband had either drowned or were eaten by sharks.
During the inquest into their deaths, experts speculated that due to the gear that had washed up the couple had not been victims of sharks, the tears in Eileen's wetsuit didn't appear to have been teeth marks and no blood was detected but they had likely succumbed to delirium from dehydration and it had caused them to remove their diving outfits. Without the buoyancy from their gear the couple would soon have fatigued and drowned. The coroner dismissed the idea that Lonergan's had anything to do with the tragedy and formally charged Geoffrey Nairn with their unlawful killing. He was later found not guilty but with his company fined after pleading guilty to negligence, Outer Edge went out of business. Queensland also introduced stricter measures on diving expeditions with captains and dive masters independently confirming head counts.
Five years after, a film was made inspired by the tragic events called Open Water, the film opened wounds not only for the families but for the diving community in Queensland. The film is based around a married couple who go on a scuba diving holiday in the Caribbean only to be left behind and stranded in shark infested waters after the boat crew does an incorrect head count. The husband is killed by a shark and rather than share her husbands fate the wife removes her gear and drowns herself before the sharks can attack her.
During an interview on the 20th anniversary of the tragedy in 2018, Eileen's mother Kathy stated she held no ill will towards Australia and said the family have nothing but sympathy towards Nairn, who passed away in 2015, and that it was the right decision that he wasn't prosecuted.
This case is truly a terrible tragedy and a worst nightmare come to life, without their bodies we can never know for certain what happened during those two days. We can only hope that Tom and Eileen's death weren't at the hands of sharks and that their deaths and the stricter rules it created have helped to save anyone else from such a terrifying fate.
Kommentare