Fishermen's sad fate leaves wife, fiance joined in grief

They barely knew each other before the men they loved disappeared.

By ELENA LESLEY, Times Staff Writer
Published October 5, 2007

Jacqueline Chambers-Puricelli, right, with sister Judy Johnson. Chambers-Puricelli's husband was found dead Oct. 1.
	[Douglas R. Clifford | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Linda Starks] Linda Starks poses with her boyfriend Daniel Propes in 2005. [Jacqueline Chambers-Puricelli] Dale Puricelli shows off a large-mouth bass which he caught near his home in Holiday.

TARPON SPRINGS - As searchers combed the cloudy waters of Lake Tarpon on Monday, Jacqueline Chambers-Puricelli and Linda Starks waited together for word of the men they loved.

First, searchers found Chambers-Puricelli's husband, Dale Puricelli, at the bottom of the Lake Tarpon outfall canal, tangled in fishing line.

The news stunned the two women.

"We just held each other," said Starks, 48.

Over the next five or six hours, Chambers-Puricelli, 53, refused to leave Starks waiting on the banks of the canal alone. She stayed until they knew the fate of Starks' fiance, Daniel Propes, who was discovered in a thickly vegetated section of the canal.

"Jackie's question had been answered," said Chambers-Puricelli's sister, Judy Johnson. "She needed to wait there until Linda's question was answered, too."

Though the women hadn't known each other very long, both immediately knew that day would forge a permanent bond between them. On Sunday morning, they were two women who worked together in a doctor's office, waiting for their loved ones to return from a fishing trip. By Monday afternoon, they were companions in grief.

"We both still are and forever will be in this together," Chambers-Puricelli said.

"If Jackie needs me, I'll be there," said Starks, still visibly shaken Thursday. "She lost the man she loved."

Chambers-Puricelli has worked in the doctor's office for eight years and is now the office manager. Starks started as a receptionist two months ago. They knew immediately they had to get their guys together.

"I thought they'd hit it off," Starks said.

Chambers-Puricelli met her husband through mutual friends but didn't start dating until after a chance encounter in 1998. A few years later, they married.

The two were perfect for each other. "We fit," Chambers-Puricelli said quietly in agreement. "We fit."

While they shared some interests, Mr. Puricelli also was passionate about his own pursuits.

He devoted long hours to woodworking and built everything from the couple's backyard deck to their entertainment center. A nature lover, he created an oasis behind their Holiday Lake Estates home.

"He had a desire to be outside all the time, close to the water, on the water," Chambers-Puricelli said.

That was a quality the two men shared. Mr. Propes, a career carpenter from Michigan, was an avid hunter, fisherman and swimmer.

"He would be the first one to jump off a bridge or a pier," Starks said.

The two women were contacted by authorities a little after 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Chambers-Puricelli had just returned home from grocery shopping. Starks had talked to Mr. Propes a couple hours earlier, when he called to wake her up.

She said the same thing she said every morning: "I love you. Be careful. Have a good time."

The men set up the fishing trip after meeting at a party. They launched Mr. Puricelli's 15-foot bass fishing boat from Anderson Park around 7 a.m.

No one's sure exactly what happened on the boat that morning. Autopsies of the men didn't yield any clues, although authorities said the cause of death was drowning. Police speculate one man may have fallen in the water and the other went in after him.

Chambers-Puricelli and Starks say they've accepted they'll probably never know.

[Last modified October 4, 2007, 21:53:19]