Ben McDaniel: Into the Deep

Summary

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The Final Hours with Sarah Turney & Kourtney Nichole

Episode: Ben McDaniel: Into the Deep
Date: June 8, 2026
Host: Crime House

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Overview

This episode explores the 2010 disappearance of Ben McDaniel, an avid diver, at Florida’s Vortex Spring—a case that remains unsolved. Through personal insight, methodical breakdowns, and expert commentary, Sarah Turney and Kourtney Nichole examine whether Ben perished in the treacherous cave or managed an unlikely escape, drawing out the tormenting ambiguities that endure for his family and the diving community.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ben’s Background and Love for Diving

• Upbringing: Ben was raised in Tennessee in a close-knit, affluent family.
• Connection to Water: He developed an early fascination with the ocean and diving, becoming certified at 14 and amassing around 500 deep dives.
• Personal Setbacks:
  • The sudden death of his youngest brother, Paul, to a stroke in 2008 devastated Ben ([07:02]).
  • Ben’s business failed in the recession, leaving him deep in debt and his marriage ended ([07:32]).
• A Sabbatical for Healing:
  • At his parents’ suggestion, Ben moved to Florida in April 2010, seeking solace at Vortex Spring and beginning to rebuild his life ([09:11]).

2. Vortex Spring and Ben’s Diving Practices

• The Cave’s Reputation:
  Vortex Spring’s cave is notorious—1,700 feet long, up to 150 feet deep, and so treacherous that its entry is protected by a padlocked gate and a warning sign depicting the Grim Reaper ([12:01]).
• Rule-Bending:
  • Ben did not hold the required cave diving certification but bypassed the gate—possibly for the adrenaline rush ([13:31], [18:52]).
  • He meticulously mapped the cave, impressing experienced diver Eduardo Toron, but also raising alarm about his risky behavior ([11:01], [13:31]).
• Outside Support and Peer Dilemmas
  • Ben’s friend and Vortex staffer, Eduardo, let him through the gate to reduce risks associated with Ben’s usual workaround ([16:45]).
  • The moral quandary: While friends wanted to protect Ben, there was debate on whether staff should have prevented his entry or pushed him toward proper certification ([17:56]).

3. The Final Hours—Ben’s Disappearance

• Day of Disappearance (Aug 18, 2010):
  • Ben enjoyed a long dive, secured a job at Vortex, then went for a solo evening dive ([15:17], [16:45]).
  • Last seen by Eduardo, who let him safely through the gate ([16:45]).
  • Ben’s decompression tanks and gear were well organized, indicating he planned a long, technical dive ([19:49]).
• Crucial Uncertainty:
  • Typically, Eduardo would check for Ben’s bubbles after night dives, but on this night he forgot ([21:39]).
  • “There is a period of time that no one was really watching the water. This means that Ben could have come up without anybody really seeing. And I think that's just what ... makes this so mysterious.” – Courtney ([21:39])

4. Search, Recovery, and Mysteries

• Initial Search:
  • When Ben was discovered missing, Eduardo immediately raised the alarm and risked his life diving deep into the cave ([24:24]).
  • The search was limited to highly trained cave divers—few volunteers could help compared to typical missing person cases ([26:26]).
• Findings:
  • Ben’s truck, keys, cash, and phone were untouched in the parking area. His decompression tanks were unused ([26:51]).
  • No body, clothing, or gear was ever recovered from the cave, despite extensive and dangerous attempts by world-class divers ([32:02], [33:56]).
  • Expert diver Ed Sorenson: “This is the only time he's come back without a body. So when he resurfaces, he tells Patty and Shelby he doesn't think Ben is in the cave.” – Courtney ([33:35])
  • Water tests, cadaver dogs, and land searches revealed no evidence of decomposing remains in the spring or surrounding land ([36:21]).
• Theory Divide:
  • Most of Ben’s family and friends, as well as many experts, doubted he left intentionally or staged his disappearance. There was no financial motive, and he was excited about his new job and relationship ([35:58]).
  • Some speculated foul play on the surface or the remote chance Ben chose a new life ([35:58], [38:14]).

5. Aftermath and Community Fallout

• Family Initiatives:
  • The McDaniels offered a reward for Ben’s recovery, angering the diving community, who feared it would lure inexperienced divers to their deaths ([39:24]).
  • “Now they think the McDaniels are incentivizing less experienced divers to tempt death.” – Courtney ([39:24])
• Key Artifact:
  • Diver Jill Heiner found a military shovel in the cave—its ownership disputed; some thought it was Ben’s, others said it belonged to a search diver ([40:25]).
• Unanswered Questions:
  • Even after exhaustive mapping, professional dives, robots, and official investigations, no trace of Ben has surfaced ([35:14], [43:23]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The Reaper’s Warning:
  “[Beyond this gate] the tunnel gets incredibly challenging to navigate. ... There's nothing in this cave worth dying for.” – Courtney ([12:01])
• On Survivor’s Guilt:
  “That type of, like, survivor's guilt, if you will, or guilt just for being involved is so hard to navigate. And I just hope that [Eduardo] doesn't blame himself.” – Sarah ([19:25])
• The Mystery of Absence:
  “I don't lean towards him leaving his life behind.... But we know in true crime, the craziest things could happen.” – Sarah ([35:58])
• Cave Diving Community Outrage:
  “Now they think the McDaniels are incentivizing less experienced divers to tempt death.” – Courtney ([39:24])
• Emotional Toll:
  “Every time a diver emerges, they brace themselves for news of their son.... Being left alone with your own thoughts while you’re just waiting ... feels like torture.” – Sarah ([29:20])

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• Ben’s Childhood & Early Adulthood—[05:15 – 08:47]
• Surface & Cave Conditions at Vortex Spring—[12:01 – 13:31]
• Eduardo Lets Ben Through the Gate—[16:45 – 17:33]
• Last Confirmed Sighting; Nighttime Uncertainty—[19:13 – 21:39]
• Discovery of Disappearance & Initial Search—[22:46 – 27:44]
• Full-Scale Cave Searches & Expert Opinions—[32:02 – 35:49]
• Debate About Foul Play and Vanishing Theories—[36:21 – 38:14]
• Family’s Reward and Community Backlash—[39:24 – 40:25]
• Jill Heiner’s Dive & The Army Shovel—[40:25 – 41:31]
• Long-Term Aftermath & Ben’s Official Declaration of Death—[43:23 – 44:33]

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Case Status & Call to Action

Ben McDaniel remains missing. As of this recording, he would be about 45 years old.

• Height: 6’1”
• Weight: ~210 lbs
• Blue eyes, brown hair, receding hairline
• Last seen: Vortex Spring, Ponce de Leon, Florida, Aug 18, 2010

If you have information, contact Holmes County Sheriff’s Office: [phone].

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Final Reflections

The unsolved disappearance of Ben McDaniel is a haunting case that underscores the peril, mystery, and emotional devastation surrounding underwater cave incidents. Despite exhaustive searches by experts, no answers have surfaced, leaving the McDaniel family and the wider community in limbo—proof that, sometimes, the simplest explanations remain unprovable, and the final hours can echo for years.

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For further discussion, thoughts, and condolences, join the conversation on Crime House social media, and stay tuned Mondays for new episodes of The Final Hours.

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Transcript

[Sarah Turney]

Before we get into today's episode, we want to tell you about another show from the team behind the final hidden history with Dr. Harini Bhat.

[Courtney Nicole]

Every Monday, Dr. Bot goes where history gets vanished. Civilizations, doomsday prophecies, paranormal phenomena and events that science still can't fully explain.

[Sarah Turney]

She'll give you historical context, break down the science, and even interrogate the supernatural and ask, what if it happened today?

[Courtney Nicole]

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[Crime House Announcer]

This is Crime House.

[Courtney Nicole]

It's a hot summer day in Pons de Leon, Florida. You're at a place called Vortex Spring, a freshwater diving park that caters to scuba divers. It features a large natural spring with crystal clear water that stays a refreshing 68 degrees year round. Beneath. The spring basin has a man made air pocket called a talk box, a couple of tunnels to practice cave diving, a sunken sailboat to explore, and an underwater basketball hoop.

[Sarah Turney]

The bottom of the basin is also where divers can find the mouth of Vortex Springs infamous cave. It it's nearly 1700ft long and reaches a depth of 150ft. The same way in is the same way out. The tunnel starts wide, but gets narrower the deeper it goes. At about 300ft in, it's sealed by a padlocked gate. Going any further is dangerous. You need a special certification and key to get past this threshold. The last time anyone saw 30 year old Ben McDaniel, he was sneaking past that gate going on a forbidden adventure.

[Courtney Nicole]

Search parties risked their lives to find Ben, but there was never any sign of him after that day. Which is why we're left asking, did Ben swim too far into the cave and seal his fate? Or did he somehow make it out alive and start an entirely new adventure? Every year, over half a million people go missing, and that's just in the United States alone. Most of those stories barely get a headline. Some don't even get a flyer or a tip line. And when cases do get media attention, we usually only get the broad strokes.

[Sarah Turney]

But for those of us who have lived these true crime cases, we know the devil's in the details. This is the Final Hours. A Crime House Original Powered by Pave Studios. I'm Sarah Turney.

[Courtney Nicole]

And I'm Courtney Nicole. Every Monday, Sarah and I will be looking at the final hours of someone's disappearance. The small, seemingly mundane moments to see if there was anything hiding in plain sight.

[Sarah Turney]

Looking back at all those last conversations, connections and choices is critical. And it could be the key to unlocking it all. Each episode I'll offer insight on what those close to the victim might have been going through, and Courtney will use her expertise to give more context into the crime scene, the red flags, and the investigation itself. And we want to thank you for being a part of the Crime House community. Please rate, review and follow the show and for early ad free access to every episode. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. As always, this show is made and recorded by humans, not AI.

[Courtney Nicole]

This time we're discussing the disappearance of 30 year old Benjamin Wayne McDaniel on Wednesday, August 18, 2010, Ben got a new job at his favorite cave diving site, Vortex Spring. He couldn't wait to start the next day. That evening, Ben went for a solo dive at his future workplace. He geared up, swam down into the cave, passed the advanced divers gate, and never resurfaced. Or so it seems.

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[Sarah Turney]

it's 2008. 30 year old Benjamin Wayne McDaniel is the oldest of four brothers in a tight knit family with millionaire parents. Ben was a confident kid. He found no shame in holding his mother Patty's hand until the sixth grade and enjoyed their especially close relationship. Sometimes she checked him out of school just so they could spend time together. He shared his hopes and dreams with her, like building a house over water with glass floors just so he could see the fish swimming underneath.

[Courtney Nicole]

Yeah, Sara and I found that it seems like Ben always had this deep connection with water. Every year his family vacationed in Florida where Ben snorkeled and collected sand dollars along the beach. He learned to scuba dive at 14 years old. His favorite part about it was exploring new territory and diving through shipwrecks. Ben's family said he was fearless, willing to attempt literally anything. Which led him to earning a bunch of certifications. He eventually became an expert diver and recorded about 500 deep dives. He loved an out of water adventure too. He took a ton of rock climbing trips with his youngest brother Paul. The two scaled mountains together all over the country.

[Sarah Turney]

Ben was also scaling mountains in his career. After he graduated from Christian Brothers high school in 1998, he moved 30 miles from his hometown of Collierville, Tennessee to Memphis. There Ben started his own construction company at just 18 years old. He even went to school while running it. In 2004, 24 year old Ben earned his degree in construction management from the University of Memphis. Things were going really well for Ben. By his late 20s he'd fallen in love, gotten married and had a chocolate lab named Spooner. But soon his life took an unexpected turn. On September 14, 2008, 28 year old Ben went with his parents over to his brother Paul's house. What they found was heartbreaking. 22 year old Paul was sitting up in bed unconscious. Ben did what he could to try to help Paul himself. Then he sat by Paul's side after he was rushed to the hospital. But Paul didn't make it. The McDaniels youngest son had died of a stroke. He was in peak physical condition and didn't have any history of health issues. It was a complete and total shock. Paul's death wrecked Ben and life wasn't done throwing him curveballs.

[Courtney Nicole]

Next, the 2008 recession hit and Ben's construction business took it hard. Ben started losing clients and hemorrhaging money. But Ben realized something else was at play. One of his employees had gone off to secretly start their own business. And he was poaching Ben's clients even while he was supposed to be working for Ben. After 12 years in construction, Ben was forced to fold his company. Around this time, an acquaintance asked Ben to partner in a real estate venture. He was in a particularly vulnerable state at the time, but he figured it was a gamble worth taking. Turns out, it was not. Ben ended up with $400,000 to $500,000 in debt from this venture right after his other business had gone under. Now he had no way to pay it back. At 28 years old, Ben had to sell his house to cover his debts. On top of that, his wife left him. They hadn't been together very long at that point, but it was just one more kick while Ben was down. He ended up moving back in with his parents in Collierville. I just can't imagine like what Ben must have been feeling like at this exact moment in his life. It just seems like everything that could go wrong is going wrong. And then that huge loss of his, his youngest brother, that is just so heartbreaking.

[Sarah Turney]

Yeah, I mean it seems like he's going from this like, extreme high. He has his own business, he's, you know, graduating from college and finding romantic interests in his dog Spooner. Everything's going well and then it just takes this turn and I can't even imagine that type of grief piled on top of grief and loss. It's awful.

[Courtney Nicole]

It takes like a certain kind of person to, I don't know, risk starting this kind of business and going out on these kind of ventures, you know, at such a young age. And I think that kind of shows just the type of person Ben was. He wasn't afraid of failure and he took every risk and you know, sometimes it didn't play out, but he didn't let that stop him.

[Sarah Turney]

Yeah, no, a hundred percent. And it seems like he had such a strong, like, safety net at home, not just financially but, you know, emotionally as well with his parents, with his siblings and I mean, even through sibling loss, which is really, really tough to get through. I'm just glad that he had some sort of safety net there for him. I just wanted to say, like, especially for anybody experiencing sibling loss, like, please reach out. There are so many amazing support groups online in, in, in every state. Really reach out. It's a really hard thing to go through and it feels like just talking to somebody who can really understand and empathize is helpful sometimes. So don't be afraid to reach out. Ben was clearly going through a lot at once. So in April 2010, when Ben is 30, his mother Patty and father Shelby suggest he take a year long sabbatical. He can live at their condo in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. It's about eight hours by car from their home in Collierville. Ben takes them up on it and Patty and Shelby offer to pay all of his expenses while he resets.

[Courtney Nicole]

That first month, Ben discovers Vortex Spring, a popular scuba diving park in Ponce de leon, Florida, about 40 miles inland of Santa Rosa Beach. Ben becomes a regular who dives multiple times a day in Santa Rosa. Ben also Finds time to grab sushi and reconnect with an ex girlfriend, a 33 year old wetlands biologist named Emily Greer. They enjoy each other's company and start dating again. So things are starting to look up for Ben. He talks about the future, how he wants to take care of his parents as they grow older and maybe start another business, his own dive company. He's also floated the idea of becoming an instructor.

[Sarah Turney]

Yeah, I mean, Ben is really becoming obsessed, obsessed with diving. Even when he's not at Vortex Spring, he's reading and educating himself on it. His bed is covered with diving and caving manuals next to pages of handwritten notes. When Ben dives, he even keeps a plastic notebook with him to use underwater. He's been mapping out Vortex Springs almost 1700 foot natural cave, the one that starts at the bottom of the basin. I should mention he's not the only one doing this. About 1500ft of the cave has already been mapped out by his friend Eduardo Toron. Eduardo's a commercial diver and longtime local dive shop employee who helps maintain the cave. But Ben's map is actually a lot more detailed and accurate. He divides the cave into 30 foot sections and will spend an entire dive focusing on those measurements. When Edoardo sees his notebook, he's really impressed by this map. But it tells Edoardo something important. Ben's been bypassing the security gate down there, which is incredibly dangerous.

[Courtney Nicole]

Okay, so Sarah, I think we should pause here to explain this because it's a big part of the story. At about 105ft deep and 300ft into the cave, there's this padlocked gate. Before divers even get there, there's a sign picturing the Grim Reaper that says, stop. Go no further. There's nothing in this cave where worth dying for. And that's because beyond this gate, the cave gets incredibly challenging to navigate. It's a long, dark and narrow tunnel that in some areas only measures 10 inches from floor to ceiling. Way too tight to fit through. Wearing standard diving equipment. Some are so narrow that a single diver has to wear tanks mounted to their sides instead of their backs or push a single tank in front of them and can still barely shimmy through. And the only way out is the way a diver came in. So it's very hard to turn around in there. Without the right skills, a diver could get stuck or run out of air very easily. To go past this gate, you need a special technical certification for cave diving. One that Ben does not have. Of certified divers, only 1% are cave divers.

[Sarah Turney]

And very few of those 1% will even dare to swim the tunnels of Vortex Spring.

[Courtney Nicole]

Sarah's right, so you actually need to get a special set of keys to pass the gate. A diver has to leave their cave certification at the front desk. That proves they have the experience to maneuver the dive. But it's also a safety measure because returning the key tells the staff that the diver has resurfaced.

[Sarah Turney]

Getting his cave diver certification would have only taken Ben about 2 months and 125 dives with someone certified. He could have easily done that since he started visiting Vortex Spring. But he didn't. Instead, he's been sneaking past the gate, which is made of floor to ceiling metal bars. Edoardo has no idea how he's done it, and Ben refuses to tell him. Ben is a skilled diver and Eduardo knows it, but it's a very risky move, one that might end up costing Ben his life.

[Courtney Nicole]

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[Sarah Turney]

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[Sarah Turney]

It's early August 2010. Ben drives seven hours back to Tennessee. He and his girlfriend Emily, spend a week with his family. On Monday, August 16, they have a birthday dinner to celebrate his mom, Patty. Ben gives Patty a heartfelt letter thanking her for letting him stay at the condo, which has afforded him his new life. After the birthday dinner that night, Ben and Emily hit the road back to Florida so he can dive. The next day. As he starts driving down the gravel road, he gives his parents a thumbs up. He tells them that they're his best friends and that's the last time they ever see him.

[Courtney Nicole]

On the morning of Wednesday, August 18, 2010, Ben goes for a long dive at Vortex Spring and finishes. Late that afternoon, Ben finds his friend Eduardo at one of the air stations. He asks him to refill his two side mounts, or tanks, with 27% oxygen. Regular air has 21% oxygen. A higher percentage means less nitrogen, which allows a diver to stay in deep water longer. Ben's also been asking Edoardo about helping him get a job there. The owner of the park, Mr. Kelly, is nearby, so Eduardo suggests they ask him together Right now, Eduardo introduces Ben and lets him and Mr. Kelly chat. When Ben finds Edoardo again, he's ecstatic. Ben tells him he got the job and he'll be helping Edoardo out with his tasks. Ben's ready to start right then and there, but Edoardo tells him tomorrow will be better, since it's already getting late. Ben figures in that case, he'll go for another dive that evening. Meanwhile, Edoardo finishes some underwater work with his colleague Chuck Cronin. Afterwards, he decides to examine the cave gate and tells Chuck to come along with him. He wants to figure out how Ben's been bypassing it, since Ben won't tell him himself. When he gets there, he sees that Ben has removed a link from one of the chains in the gate, and he replaced it with a padlock of his own. This allows Ben to unlock his own lock, free it up a bit, and lift the door of the gate just enough to swim under it. Eduardo and Chuck even record a video demonstrating how he would do this.

[Sarah Turney]

Just before sunset, around 7pm Eduardo, Ben passes Eduardo and Chuck underwater as they're coming back from the gate. They wave hello to each other underwater. But before Eduardo and Chuck make it much farther, Eduardo turns back around and swims with Ben back to the gate. Edoardo shows Ben his padlock to say he knows how Ben's been sneaking through. Then he takes out his key, unlocks the real gate lock, and opens the gate for Ben. Eduardo does this because he doesn't want the gate to fall on Ben when he does his little trick with it. It's dangerous, and if he's gonna sneak by anyway, he might as well make sure Ben does it safely. So Ben swims through the gate and waves goodbye to Edoardo. Eduardo then turns around and swims off, thinking he'll see Ben tomorrow. Only that's not the case.

[Courtney Nicole]

For the record, I feel like I totally understand Eduardo's thought process by, you know, unlocking the gate for Ben. He's trying to protect him. It's really dangerous. It could fall on him. It seems like this heavy, you know, big gate that could really hurt Ben if things were to go wrong. However, I don't really know how I feel about all of these employees seemingly knowing about Ben, like, sneaking past this gate, knowing just how dangerous it is when he doesn't have the certification for it.

[Sarah Turney]

Yeah, I mean, this is a hard one, right? Because I think everything is much more clear in hindsight. And if I had to take a guess, Ben's probably not the first person to do this. And if he's that determined. I'm not a cave diver, right. I am by no means an expert, but I don't see anything stopping really anybody from taking a tool down there and snipping another link out of that chain. So, like, what realistically can they do other than try to make it safer for him?

[Courtney Nicole]

Like you said, there's nothing you can do to stop Ben or really anybody else from, you know, sneaking around down there. However, I feel like the only thing that could have been possibly done in the situation. Like you said, we know now what the situation turned out to be. But maybe just like trying to force him to take that certification class, because I feel like if, you know, you're gonna sneak down there anyway, you may as well just get the training because, you know, underwater cave diving, like that sounds really, really dangerous and you could be super skilled. But, like, if one little thing goes wr, that's really scary.

[Sarah Turney]

Yeah, no, I agree. I think anybody who, like, wants to do this, like, go get the certification 1000%. I'm just trying to put myself in his mindset, like, why not get the certification right? Why not do it the right way? And I wonder if it's almost like an adrenaline junkie type of thing. Like it's more fun to break the rules, even though you don't really have to. I don't know. I'm not that adventurous.

[Courtney Nicole]

I don't think anybody can, you know, try and figure out what Ben was thinking. But all I can imagine is how Eduardo must be feeling as this case progresses. That last interaction with his friend Ben.

[Sarah Turney]

Yeah, I mean, that type of, like, survivor's guilt, if you will, or guilt just for being involved is so hard to navigate. And I just hope that he doesn't blame himself.

[Courtney Nicole]

I hope not either. He was really just trying to be a good friend.

[Sarah Turney]

On his way back to the surface, Edoardo swims past an extra full tank of oxygen that Ben left in front of the gate. Then he meets with Chuck to start their decompression.

[Courtney Nicole]

Okay, so another quick pause here. Decompression is when a diver makes vital stops before ascending to the surface. This allows nitrogen or helium to leave the body safely. Skipping this can cause decompression sickness, leading to disorientation and sometimes even death. In the basin, Ben left two aluminum 80s padlocked to a man made air bubble called the talkbox for his own decompression. These aluminum 80s are standard sized tanks with about 45 to 60 minutes of air between the two tanks. Ben was diving with the one he left outside of the gate and the two he staged in the basin for decompression. Ben appears to have been planning a really long dive.

[Sarah Turney]

What's strange is one of Ben's padlocked aluminum 80 tanks is almost empty. That's odd to Eduardo because he just filled all of Ben's tanks right before his dive. By the time Eduardo and Chuck complete their decompression, Ben should have been starting his. But again, they figure maybe Ben's taking a longer dive today. He's been known to take dives lasting close to five hours. As the men climb the wooden staircase out of Vortex Spring, a family of divers asks the men if they found a light. Chuck has some air left, so he offers to go look for it. He searches the basin up to the entrance of the cave with no luck. When Chuck returns empty handed, Eduardo offers to look again the next day. Edoardo then returns to his trailer with Chuck. They drink a cup of coffee and watch the video they made showing how Ben bypasses the gate. Then Chuck takes off while Edoardo sticks around. Because Ben often dives at night, Edoardo's gotten used to checking the water for him after dark. He usually looks for bubbles to make sure Ben's decompressing. But that night, it slips Edoardo's mind. He ends up falling asleep, meaning nobody knows for sure if Ben made it back to the surface.

[Courtney Nicole]

I think this detail, it really sticks out to me the most in this entire case because usually there's, you know, Eduardo there kind of checking for air bubbles, making sure Ben comes up and, you know, everything's good. But this specific night, that didn't happen. So there is a period of time that no one was really watching the water. This means that Ben could have come up without anybody really seeing. And I think that's just what. That's just what's so mysterious to me. Like, I have no explanation for that.

[Sarah Turney]

Yeah, I totally agree. I think that this one part, this one action or inaction really changes everything. And again, that's not to put any guilt on Eduardo. This is absolutely not his fault. But again, I think this is what creates such a mystery here is like this one pivotal moment.

[Courtney Nicole]

Yeah, we see that a lot in pretty much every single case. There is that one moment where, you know, everything kind of goes wrong, but there's like this mystery surrounding it. But in this case, it's really, really difficult because of how unique the scene is. We're talking about underwater cave div. This is just incredibly difficult on a daily basis to, like, manage. But now you're talking about somebody possibly going missing. Could they still be down there? Could they not? Like, this is just really unique.

[Sarah Turney]

Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think crime scenes are hard enough. Adding it to be underwater feels impossible. Let's jump to the next morning. Thursday, August 19, 2010. Ben's supposed to be starting his first day of work, but Eduardo totally forgot he had a commitment in Pensacola that day. When Eduardo returns to Vortex Spring in the evening, he sees Ben's GMC pickup truck, towel and hat in the same spot he always leaves them. He figures Ben showed up today and is probably out for a dive. Now. He'll see him tomorrow. The next morning rolls around Friday, Aug. 20. Around 9am Edoardo sees his friend's truck, towel and hat again in the same exact position they were the night before. Nothing's moved an inch, and that gives him a bad feeling. Edoardo tells a couple employees that something's wrong. Then he grabs his diving equipment. As he starts descending towards the cave, he sees the two tanks padlocked to the talk box for Ben's decompression. One is full and one is almost empty, exactly how they were two days earlier. Then Edoardo finds the silver tank Ben left in front of the gate. It's in the same place and still hasn't been used. Another bad sign. Edoardo heads to the gate, which he finds still unlocked and open. Everything is exactly as he left it when he let Ben through two days earlier. Down to the position of the padlock and the chain, Edoardo has a sinking feeling Ben is dead behind the gate.

[Courtney Nicole]

The second Edoardo steps out of the water, he has his fellow employees call the sheriff's department. Meanwhile, he gets additional tanks and cave diving equipment to search further. Around 10am Edoardo goes in deeper to look for Ben's body. When divers talk about Vortex Spring, they often measure how far in they go by restrictions. These restrictions have nothing to do with rules and everything to do with size. A restriction is any passage of a cave too narrow for two divers to swim through side by side. And they can get a lot more constricting than that. Plus, as we said, the only way out of Vortex is the way a diver came in. If they do pass a restriction, they have to find somewhere with enough space to turn around. This gets harder the deeper they go. During the search, Eduardo makes it pretty far into the cave, all the way to the fourth restriction. But he doesn't see Ben, which to him means Ben must be on the other side of the restriction. He must have made it through. But the fourth restriction is too narrow for Eduardo to pass with the equipment he currently has on. He'll have to resurface and regroup. I want to give a huge shout out to Eduardo. I feel like he's a really, really good friend for, yes, coming back out and like telling his employees to notify the police, but also grabbing the equipment and going back in and potentially, you know, putting his own life at risk by going this deep into cave just to search for his friend.

[Sarah Turney]

Oh, 100%. I mean, it looks like he was looking for those signs to make sure that Ben was okay right away. And I mean, obviously he was very honest about the situation, that he knew that Ben was using the gate when he shouldn't have, that he helped Ben get through the gate at one point. And I think putting his career on the line to help Ben, like, that's a really heroic act in addition to physically risking his life to go down there. And as we know, this is 1% of people that have this certification or whatever. I mean, it's just, just an impossible situation. And I feel like Eduardo did all he could.

[Courtney Nicole]

Oh, he, he 100% did all he could and then some.

[Sarah Turney]

I feel like this is something that takes a highly skilled and professional person to do, and I can't even imagine what that must have been like. It's not like when somebody goes missing and you can call for hundreds of volunteers to help, you know, come search a field or a forest or the desert, you know, whatever it might be. There's only a certain amount of people that can actually even help in this case, and they're all risking their lives to do it.

[Courtney Nicole]

While Eduardo is back in the water looking for Ben, deputies from the Holmes County Sheriff's Department secure the perimeter of Vortex Spring. They search Ben's vehicle. His wallet is inside with his driver's license, diver certification, and hundreds in cash. His cell phone is there, too. He last used it to call his mother the night he vanished two days before on Wednesday, August 18th.

[Sarah Turney]

And that was their last conversation. The next news she hears of him is gut wrenching. At 11am a Shelby county patrol car pulls up to the McDaniels Collierville farmhouse, 450 miles away from Vortex Spring. When the deputy tells Ben's mom and dad that they found Ben's truck but not him, Patty collapses on the foyer bench. She and Shelby have to break the news to Ben's brother and his girlfriend Emily. Then they pack up their cars and start driving from Tennessee to Florida.

[Courtney Nicole]

Back in Pons de Leon, Eduardo Resurfaces from his second search for Ben. He immediately puts together a team to pass the fourth restriction. He assembles about nine experienced cave divers, but most of them don't know the cave that far in. To get ready, they go to Eduardo's house and watch a video he made of the cave all the way up to the fifth restriction. It's still Friday, August 20, when the divers enter the water. But it's after nightfall. The group divides into two teams. One brings down an underwater stretcher called a Stokes basket. They pass the fourth restriction and to their surprise, Ben isn't there. In that case, Edoardo says he must be past the fifth and final restriction, which is even narrower. But he can't be much farther than that.

[Sarah Turney]

That same night, Patty and Shelby finish their seven hour drive to their condo in Florida. There they find their son's chocolate lab. Spooner is desperate after being left alone for the last few days. They know Ben would never leave Spooner alone willingly. Now that family's in town, they spend their days pacing the banks at Vortex Spring. Every time a diver emerges, they brace themselves for news of their son. I can't even imagine how helpless they feel not being able to go down there and look for your child yourself.

[Courtney Nicole]

I know. I mean, like we already established like this crime scene, so to speak. It's already really difficult given the circumstances and the setting. And then on top of that, like you have this family like above water, knowing their son is missing, but yet they, they just can't go down there to search themselves. It's just way too dangerous. They don't have the experience. So now they're left kind of like in the dark on what's going to happen.

[Sarah Turney]

And I mean, being left alone with like your own thoughts while you're just waiting for somebody to come up, resurface and give you some news just feels like torture.

[Courtney Nicole]

I think that's the best way to put it. Torture. Because there's really not much this family can do besides wait.

[Sarah Turney]

And how do you even fill that time or pass that time? I feel like there's just no distraction for something like that.

[Courtney Nicole]

Well, thankfully, the area's best divers have come out to help. But nobody makes it past the fifth restriction until late afternoon on Saturday, August 21, the second day of the search. The one diver who does get past there is named James Toland. And James does find something of note. Markings in the mud on the bottom of the fifth restriction. It tells him that somebody was there. And recently, it looks like another diver brushed against the bottom While passing through, Eduardo confirms the markings aren't from him. He hasn't dived that far in months. There's something else, too. The cave used to have two permanent lines, Basically a nylon guideline anchored to the cave floor. The divers used to navigate in and out of the cave leave past the fifth restriction. A piece of the second line has been broken for a while, flapping around in the water. Eduardo always thought that he should do something to fix it, but he just never got around to it. However, when James gets there, he finds someone has fixed it. They tucked it under the other line to anchor it down. When Eduardo hears about the fix, he thinks this must have been Ben.

[Sarah Turney]

A few days later, Edoardo goes through the fifth restriction himself. That's when he sees the loose line rolled up and carefully tucked under the permanent line. He also sees the markings at the restriction. Eduardo thinks that when the cave got too narrow, Ben kept passing forward to find somewhere to turn around. When he finally made it to a spot with enough space, he got stuck in a nook. The question is where? Ben's parents are willing to do whatever it takes to find out and bring their son's body back home.

[Keith Morrison]

Such an ordinary thing to walk home from high school. Her name was Mickey Costanzo. Just 16, she didn't have far to go. Seemed perfectly safe. Until it wasn't. What happened to Mickey? I'm Keith Morrison, and this is five Miles From Home, an all new podcast from Dateline. Search five miles from Home to start listening now.

[Courtney Nicole]

It's Sunday, August 22, 2010. Four days since Ben disappeared from Vortex Spring. The recovery teams have barely avoided two fatalities navigating the cave's tight spaces. There's no evidence Ben is actually in there. And if he is, there's no way he is still alive. The area's International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery officer, Ed Sorenson, steps in. He agrees he'll try to go farther than any diver has gone before. He's one of the best of the best, and if there's any chance Ben is in there, he wants to help bring him out. On Monday, August 23, 2010, Ed suits up and heads straight for the back of the cave. He uses an underwater scooter to save time and air, then abandons it when the passages get too narrow. He looks in every nook and cranny, but he finds nothing. Ed makes it 1700ft into the dive, 200ft past the end of the official map. Ed is about 6ft tall and 190 pounds. Ben is 6 foot 2 and 210 pounds. His size alone makes it unlikely that he'd get farther than Ed. And he's also significantly less experienced. Ed has logged thousands of dives and is known internationally for getting into spaces other divers can't. If Ben made it as far as Ed did, there would be scratches in the soft limestone from his equipment. There would be drag marks from his body scraping the floor, and he probably would have left one of his tanks for the journey out. Plus, hungry sea creatures can smell decomposing bodies from far away. The fish would cluster around Ben's body and give him away if he were there. But everything is still Ed finds no sign of Ben. And I just have to mention, Ed has been a rescue and recovery team member since 1999. He's helped with dozens of missions, and this is the only time he's come back without a body. So when he resurfaces, he tells Patty and Shelby he doesn't think Ben is in the cave.

[Sarah Turney]

But Ben's parents can't accept this answer. They decide to hire Steve Keena, an experienced cave diver who put down the original line. He also spent over a hundred hours with a team mapping vortex in 2003. Steve dives with no tanks harnessed to his body, but he pushes a single tank in front of him. He tries to enter the nook past the fifth restriction 1. Eduardo thinks Ben may have gotten stuck in, but he can't move forward. Steve thinks there was a rock fall there, but Eduardo disagrees. Vortex employees know when there's a rockfall because the color of the water changes. Eduardo instead thinks Steve may have bumped into Ben's body but couldn't see it with his tank in front of him. Maybe he mistook it for a rock fall. But when Steve comes out, he also says he's 99% sure Ben is not in the cave.

[Courtney Nicole]

Sarah, I don't know what to believe at this point, because when I was researching this case, my gut feeling was telling me that something just went horribly wrong when Ben was down in the cave and that he is in there. But now you have these two professionals coming in, like, searching this cave as far as they possibly can, and they're both saying that they really do not feel like Ben is down there. That's so confusing to me, and I really don't know what to think. It's like making me go down this huge rabbit hole, which I really don't like to do.

[Sarah Turney]

Yeah. I mean, we know that on this show we only cover unsolved cases, Right? So when we review the cases, that we might want to cover. Like, I saw this one, I started looking it, and this was the part that got me. This is the part that makes me feel like this is truly unsolved. Because I think on the surface, it's easy to think he went down there, he drowned. It's very tragic. But when we have these experts coming up and saying that they are 99% sure that he's not down there, I think it changes everything. And I also don't feel like these are people who would give this family false hope like that.

[Courtney Nicole]

Yeah, especially that recovery like, member who's been doing this since 1999. He's never left Without a body before. So this would be like, the first time that that would happen.

[Sarah Turney]

I don't lean towards him Leaving his life behind. You know, he seemed really excited about this job. He put so much time and research. You know, he had a new romantic interest. He would have never left spooner behind. But I think we know that in true crime, the craziest things could happen. Could he have resurfaced and then been met with foul play? I think it's a possibility.

[Courtney Nicole]

Well, there's also an investigation Being done Outside the water. Within the first few days of ben's disappearance, Detectives with the holmes county sheriff's department Lead several searches. Well, trained cadaver dogs Spend hours covering the ground around the springs. Some have special training to detect bodies in the water. But this is a really difficult job. There are countless odors at vortex spring for the dogs to sniff through. But two dogs have reactions. One dashes back and forth along the bank tank, and another tries to swim down into the water. Though this isn't a formal alert, the authorities think there's a chance of decomposition in the water. Water samples are sent from the spring to the florida state health department. They test for bacteria present during decomposition, but the tests come back inconclusive. They're unable to tell if it's decomposition from humans or animals. Over the course of several months, the state and county health departments Will sample the water about 30 times. And none of the tests Will indicate a spike in bacteria Consistent with a decomposing body, Though we don't know how far within the cave these samples were taken from. Feeling at a loss for answers, Investigators start to consider foul play about two weeks after ben's disappearance. They already pulled surveillance footage from vortex spring and found nothing suspicious. But there wasn't a great picture of the area where divers enter the water. So a helicopter and deputy deputies on horseback Search the swamps, forests, and areas downstream. But they find nothing on land either. For 36 days total, some of the most skilled divers in the world search the cave for Ben. Other than his decompression tanks, they find no verifiable trace of him. The diving community starts coming up with other theories. Maybe Ben always planned to swim just past the gate where he wouldn't need to decompress, wait for the coast to clear, clear, then swim back out and disappear forever. Maybe he's on a sandy beach somewhere, sipping mai tais.

[Sarah Turney]

I've heard that too, Courtney. But the McDaniels don't believe it. In mid September 2010, a month after Ben's disappearance, the divers feel they've done everything possible. But the McDaniels aren't done looking. They borrow an underwater remotely Operated Vehicle camera, or rov. It can feed them video on the shore. In the first hour, the ROV makes it 700ft. But then the cable that tethers it to land gets too cumbersome. It doesn't go nearly as far as the human divers. Five more months pass with no sign of Ben. The McDaniels start to grow desperate. In February 2011, six months after Ben's disappearance, they offer a $10,000 reward for anyone brave enough to find their son. And Internet message board fill with outraged cave divers. The most skilled divers in the world have already risked their lives to search for Ben on a volunteer basis. Now they think the McDaniels are incentivizing less experienced divers to tempt death. Ed Sorenson, one of the divers who helped the family, calls it irresponsible and dangerous. But the McDaniels don't see it that way. In fact, they increase the reward to

[Courtney Nicole]

$30,000 in full transparency. I do see where the McDaniels are coming from. Like they just want to find their son. You know, they're doing everything in their power, what they can do, which is already limited, and so they're offering reward money. And so I see their point of view 100%. I don't think they were doing anything with ill intent. Cave divers, the whole community, I do understand their reasoning for being upset. This situation is already really dangerous. So now when you throw in money to tempt people who maybe have less experience, you know, it could result in other fatalities.

[Sarah Turney]

I mean, I think I see both sides. I understand why it would outrage this community and make them feel like they were putting their lives in danger for money. On the flip side, I also understand why they would offer this reward and up the reward they are desperate to find Their son. And I have to imagine it was done with the best intentions. I don't see a world in which they'd put out this reward thinking that people would actually, like, dive down to their death to find their son.

[Courtney Nicole]

While most of the diving community is disappointed with the McDaniels, at least one person feels empathy. Jill Heiner is another of the world's premier cave divers. She emails the McDaniels the same month they put up the reward in February 2011. She doesn't like how hard the community is on Ben for diving. Uncertified, she wants to come look for him and make a documentary with her husband called Ben's Vortex. They'll film all the way up to the last restriction. But when Jill reemerges from the shoot, she agrees with the divers before her. She doesn't think Ben is down there. But she found something nobody else had seen. At the back of the cave. There was an army issue folding shovel right next to the wall. The McDaniels believe it belonged to Ben. They say he carried an army shovel with him to dig during his dives. But the diving community community says it belonged to Steve, the diver of the McDaniels hired to look for Ben. Jill offers another very slim possibility. Sometimes when divers know they're out of air, they panic and climb into small crevices that don't look possible to enter. This is a less likely fate of Vortex Spring because there are far fewer crevices.

[Sarah Turney]

Unfortunately, Ben's tragedy isn't the only one to strike Vortex Spring. A year later. On Sunday, February 19, 2012, a 43 year old diver from Biloxi, Mississippi named Larry Higginbotham dies in the cave at the park. The McDaniels insist he wasn't looking for Ben, but the cave diving community doesn't believe them. Two months after Larry's death, on Thursday, April 12, 2012, the McDaniels finally rescind the reward. By that point, they've also filed a petition to have Ben declared dead.

[Courtney Nicole]

I feel like it's really easy for the public to want to involve themselves when it comes to, like, these high profile, so to speak, missing person cases, especially with one as like, unique as Ben's. So whether or not Larry was actually looking for him or not, I see that happening a lot where people really just want to involve themselves to see if they can make any sort of difference.

[Sarah Turney]

I mean, it feels like anybody who might go down there and not, you know, explicitly state their purpose and unfortunately lose their life, I think they could be accused of the same thing. Right. That they're going down there looking for Ben. I think it also just shows the allure of this particular cave. Right. And I think the sign with the grim reaper, I feel like it might almost add to the temptation. Again, I'm not trying to place blame. I understand why they have the sign. They should have the sign. But I feel like for these experienced. I don't really want to call them adrenaline junkies. Right. But I think that they like going into new areas, harder areas. Right. They want to challenge themselves. Like anybody who's involved in any type of outdoor activity or sport. I feel like all of it just kind of adds to the lore. And that part is really, really sad to me.

[Courtney Nicole]

I can only imagine, like, they're thinking, what can I do that has never been done before? And your point with the picture of the grim reaper, like, yeah, that can be tempting for somebody who wants to do the impossible.

[Sarah Turney]

On Thursday, April 4, 2013, a year after the McDaniels petition for their son's certificate of death, Ben is officially declared dead. To help themselves cope, Shelby and Patty adopt their son's chocolate lab spooner and start a grief support group. One thing that's really hard about this case is how obvious the answer seems, but how impossible and dangerous it's been to prove. What we do know is Ben McDaniel spent his last known day doing something he loved, exploring underwater. He woke up in the morning, drove to his favorite Florida spring, and went for a really long dive. When he resurfaced, he checked in with Eduardo and talked to Mr. Kelly about a job, something he'd been wanting, and he finally got it. That night, he went for a celebratory dive. Ben pulled his wetsuit back on, swam down into the vortex spring basin, where he locked up two decompression tanks and put another tank at the gate. Then he swam further into the cave. He passed Eduardo and another friend and got to say hi to them one last time before he went forward into the darkness and was never seen again.

[Courtney Nicole]

Ben McDaniel will be about 45 years old as of this recording. He has blue eyes and brown hair with a receding hairline. Ben is caucasian and stands about 6 foot 1. His last known weight was around 210 pounds. If you have any information about Ben McDaniel, you can contact the Holmes County Sheriff's Office at 850-547-3681.

[Sarah Turney]

Thank you for listening to the final hours. If you have any other details about Ben McDaniel's case, please share it with us on social media. We want to hear from you. Your thoughts, condolences and feedback are what make this community so special at Crime House.

[Courtney Nicole]

We value your support. Share your thoughts on social media and remember to rate, review and follow the Final Hours to help others discover the

[Sarah Turney]

show and to enhance your listening experience. Subscribe to Crime House plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode of the Final Hours ad free, along with early access and exciting bonus content.

[Courtney Nicole]

The Final Hours is hosted by Sarah Turney and me, Courtney Nicole and is a Crime House Arrest original. Powered by Pave Studios, this episode was brought to life by the Final Hours team Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benedon, Lori Marinelli, Natalie Przofsky, Sarah Camp, Alyssa Fox, Dana Brazil Sullivy, Andrew Rosenblum and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.

[Counterclock Podcast Announcer]

On a quiet Saturday morning, five women walked into Elaine Bryant store and never came home. The man responsible for their deaths was heard and even described by the lone survivor. But despite nearly being caught, he vanished into thin air. In the years since, new technology, new investigators and new questions have changed what's possible. But the families are still waiting for answers. The evidence is still there, and this case isn't cold. It's unfinished. Listen to Counterclock Season eight wherever you get your podcasts.