Like the diving equipment that washed ashore in Australia, the story of the mysterious disappearance of American divers RPCVs Thomas and Eileen Lonergan off the Great Barrier Reef in 1998 has a habit of resurfacing



Like the diving equipment that washed ashore in Australia, the story of the mysterious disappearance of American divers RPCVs Thomas and Eileen Lonergan off the Great Barrier Reef in 1998 has a habit of resurfacing

Shark film dredges up unsolved mystery

By GUY DIXON
Thursday, August 19, 2004 - Page R3


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Like the diving equipment that washed ashore in Australia, the story of the mysterious disappearance of American divers Thomas and Eileen Lonergan off the Great Barrier Reef in 1998 has a habit of resurfacing.

The list of recovered articles are a scriptwriter's dream: a wetsuit believed to be Eileen's found after they went missing with jagged tears in the bottom, other assorted scuba gear belonging to the Lonergans, including dive vests and air tanks, which could have kept them buoyant, even a slate used for writing underwater with a distress message scrawled on it.

Peace Corps volunteers who had been working in the South Pacific, Thomas, in his early 30s, and Eileen, in her late 20s, had gone on a 40-minute group dive miles offshore. Because of an apparently botched head count, their boat left them behind, and they became one of diving's great unsolved mysteries.

This week's shark-infested survival film Open Water resurrects the story once again. But the movie is only loosely based on the Lonergans and stays clear of the many intricacies of their story, because even the filmmakers thought no audience would believe them.

"This has been a nightmare from day one and now it is all going to come back again," the former skipper of the Outer Edge, Jack Nairn, who was accused of leaving the couple behind, told the Australian newspaper The Sunday Mail. He was eventually acquitted of manslaughter.

A massive rescue mission didn't start until two days after their disappearance, when the skipper finally looked inside an unclaimed bag and found Thomas Lonergan's wallet. The couple was never found. Rumours circulated. Some claimed to have seen them after their disappearance and that they may have come back on another boat. But a police investigation found no evidence of this.

Diaries were also discovered among the Lonergans' possessions in which Thomas had written months beforehand, "I feel as though my life is complete and I'm ready to die." Meanwhile, Eileen had written closer to the disappearance about her husband's "death wish." Whether prophetic or simply the kind of despondent, off-hand comments people sometimes consign to journals, they added a layer of sensationalism to the disappearance. Some blamed the uncovered diaries as the local diving industry's attempt to find a motive and minimize the bad press.

The filmmakers of Open Water, who are themselves avid scuba divers, emphasize that such an accident is extremely rare, but, since writing the script, "we've been contacted by people from the Solomon Islands. A couple were left for 20 hours in the water. It happened off Catalina Island, Calif. In Egypt, 12 divers [were stranded] -- luckily they were found. It happened in Key Largo, Fla., while we were shooting. It happens."

When this story was prepared, here was the front page of PCOL magazine:

This Month's Issue: August 2004 Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and who can come up with the funniest caption for our Current Events Funny? Exclusive: Director Vasquez speaks out in an op-ed published exclusively on the web by Peace Corps Online saying the Dayton Daily News' portrayal of Peace Corps "doesn't jibe with facts." In other news, the NPCA makes the case for improving governance and explains the challenges facing the organization, RPCV Bob Shaconis says Peace Corps has been a "sacred cow", RPCV Shaun McNally picks up support for his Aug 10 primary and has a plan to win in Connecticut, and the movie "Open Water" based on the negligent deaths of two RPCVs in Australia opens August 6. Op-ed's by RPCVs: Cops of the World is not a good goal and Peace Corps must emphasize community development.

Read the stories and leave your comments.

By Anonymous (dial35-3.brunet.bn - 202.160.35.3) on Sunday, October 15, 2006 - 5:31 pm: Edit Post

i jus looked at the "open water" which was apparenly based on a true event. what true event? theres nothing to tell because these people most probably died. the producer of this movie(chris kentis) is just to my opinion basing this story on very weak evidence and with only an assumption. doesnt anyone not feel that this is degrading? these are people's lives we are presenting to the public!haha ok i sound like a lunatic. but i just dont think it is fair to be assuming a death when it could have been a lot worse.

By T.A at PBC high. (adsl-146-32-17.mia.bellsouth.net - 70.146.32.17) on Monday, November 06, 2006 - 7:37 pm: Edit Post

You need more information on this country.
Alot more is needed for educational purposes.

By Anonymous (. - 67.159.44.138) on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 - 9:43 pm: Edit Post

I'm not buying the death at sea gambit... I'm with Col. MacKenzie (tour company) that they are still alive today in 2007 and living off of their insurance scam money. Look at the facts... The Quicksilver dive platform was only 2nm away and they had 5 hours of light to swim to it. All of that gear that was found had hardly any signs of shark attack. Tiger sharks in that area are not man-eaters. Great Whites in the GB-Reef are but none where ever reported in this area.

Their alleged partner "Martin" from Baton Rouge LA (just like them) tried to fake his death by jumping off a ferry and was discovered by a good Samaritan who dived in after him sitting on the bottom with scuba gear waiting for the ferry to move off station... The "planted" diaries in the hotel was a great touch... The angry parents (i.e. collaborators?) back home was classic... Life insurance policy untouched? Says who - the collaborators? How would anyone without the policy numbers know this? How about checking now since the heat has been off for 9 years now? Try drinking Mohitos in Havana Cuba laughing at all of you true believers...

By Alan (r220-101-84-203.cpe.unwired.net.au - 220.101.84.203) on Monday, January 21, 2008 - 8:03 am: Edit Post

Man, you have a silly imagination! How about we drop you in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef under the same circumstances, and you show us how it's done? The reality is that they drowned or were taken by a shark. The dive operators should have been successfully prosecuted for this. What was the jury thinking? Were they asleep like the dive operators?? Terrible terrible blemish on the Qld dive industry. May Tom and Eileen rest in peace.