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Hopes slim for fate of diver missing 2 days

By APRIL YEE
Published July 13, 2006

Saying novice diver Ashley Mauldin could still be alive two days after she disappeared Monday afternoon, the Coast Guard planned to continue scanning the gulf waters Wednesday night, even as those who knew her began to speak of Mauldin in the past tense.

Relatives waited for news of the 28-year-old, a manager at a mixed-income community in east Tampa.

"She was a really, really sweet person," said Michael Mauldin, her husband. "Everybody that met her was really touched by her."

When he last saw his wife, they were out on a 23-foot pleasure boat called My Millie II. That day, the seas were calm at their dive site, a shallow artificial reef 14 miles from New Port Richey.

As Michael Mauldin taught his 11-year-old daughter, Katie, to snorkel, his wife went scuba diving with five others.

At the end of the 40-minute dive, Mauldin said, his wife surfaced, but she was farther out than the others. The waves were rolling. Then she disappeared.

Divers from the Pasco County Sheriff's Office and crews from the Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission searched Wednesday morning.

The Coast Guard cutter Hawk was set to continue searching through Wednesday night, said spokeswoman Tasha Tully.

Considering factors like the temperature (89 degrees) and what Mauldin was wearing (a black and blue wetsuit), the Coast Guard estimated her survival time, Tully said, and as of Wednesday night that time hadn't run out.

But that estimate assumes Mauldin is at the surface. For divers searching under water, it's a recovery mission, said Doug Tobin, Pasco County sheriff's spokesman.

Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this report.

[Last modified July 13, 2006, 05:55:28]