On December 29, 2015, 45-year-old Laurel Leigh Silver-Valker, an experienced scuba diver, went missing off the coast of Catalina Island, California. She was participating in a lobster diving excursion aboard the commercial vessel, Sundiver Express. Silver-Valker, who was a regular on the Sundiver Express and sometimes volunteered as a crew member, was not listed on the official passenger roster for that day.
The last confirmed sighting of Silver-Valker was at approximately 9:35 a.m.
when she gave a thumbs-up to the dive captain from a depth of fifteen to twenty feet in the Ship Rock area. She was diving solo and was not wearing a buoyancy vest. Tragically, the dive boat left the site without realizing she was not on board. It was only after the vessel had traveled for about twenty minutes to the next dive location that the crew discovered she was missing. The Coast Guard was notified of her disappearance at approximately 12:00 p.m., two and a half hours after she was last seen.
An extensive search and rescue operation was launched by the Coast Guard, but Laurel Leigh Silver-Valker was never found and is presumed to be deceased. The investigation that followed revealed that this was not the first instance of the Sundiver company leaving a diver behind. The captain of the Sundiver Express, Kyaa Heller, faced a complaint from the Coast Guard for negligence. In lieu of a hearing, Heller chose to voluntarily surrender her merchant mariner credential. Silver-Valker's sons later filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Sundiver company.
Laurel Silver-Valker was a mother of two and a former special education teacher who had turned to scuba diving as a form of therapy for chronic pain. She was a passionate and highly experienced diver, nearing her 1,000th dive. Friends and family remembered her deep love for the ocean. Her case is handled by the Tustin Police Department.Last Seen: Dec 29, 2015
