Owner eager for missing Diver Debbie to resurface

By KATHERINE GAZELLA

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 23, 2000

TARPON SPRINGS -- Be on the lookout: Diver Debbie is missing.

The 5-foot-tall blond disappeared Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. She vanished from the front of the Narcosis Scuba Center on Pinellas Avenue in Tarpon Springs, where she was a regular.

"Diver Debbie was last seen wearing an aqua colored wet suit and a set of dive goggles," said a report by the Tarpon Springs Police Department.

Debbie is a striking model who wears brightly colored skin suits. She has a tendency to lose her arms and legs when picked up.

"People loved her," said Joyce Gordy, owner of Narcosis. "She's been an icon for us."

Gordy said she was surprised someone took Debbie, a mannequin Gordy has owned for many years. Her size, coupled with the disengaging limbs, make Debbie unwieldy.

"I swore nobody would take her, because she was so darn big," Gordy said.

She was wrong. Gordy misses the mannequin, which has stood in front of the Tarpon Springs store for a month and in Gordy's old scuba shop in Land O'Lakes for years before that. Still, she is keeping some perspective about the loss.

"I think it's funny as hell," she said. "But it would be nice to have her back."

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