Bahamas diving accident kills young Florida man

Aggressive grouper attack! Deepest sympathy to the family!

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Bahamas diving accident kills young Florida man
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August 17, 2009

GRAND ABACO ISLAND — Young Eric Alexander Searcy of St. Augustine always had "a passion for living" and loved to seek adventure, his family said Saturday as they prepared for their Alex's funeral on Wednesday.

Searcy, 28, died Wednesday, Aug. 12, after a freak accident while on a diving trip with his father, K. Eric Searcy, a St. Augustine veterinarian.

The elder Searcy said he and Alex were free-diving -- swimming with mask and flippers and holding their breath -- in about 30 feet of water near a coral reef off Great Abaco Island, the Bahamas.

"We were together all day," he said.

Both experienced divers, they had been fishing for grouper about six hours when Alex spotted a large grouper on the bottom, which he dove down and tried to spear. Unsuccessful, he surfaced again and joked to his father saying, "Thanks Dad. If you were with me, I could have gotten him."

Alex went down to try again.

"After a few minutes my heart started pounding," Searcy said. "I put my mask and flippers on again and went down. I saw him laying in the sand just under the back of the boat." After a struggle, he got Alex into the boat and performed CPR for a long time. His son had no pulse, his lips were purple and he had a large amount of seawater in his lungs.

An autopsy found the bridge of Alex's nose swollen and a large contusion on the top of his head.

Searcy, 60, pieced together what happened: "The wounded fish darted out of his hole, hit Alex in the face and knocked his head into the hard coral with sufficient force to cause him to lose consciousness, and he drowned."

He'd been underwater five or six minutes.

Alex was born and raised in St. Augustine.

He graduated St. Augustine High School in 1999, then joined the U.S. Army in 2000 and served with the Third Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard," in Arlington National Cemetery, one of the oldest and most respected units in the Army.

He came home after his military service to attend St. Johns River Community College.

His father's voice held barely steady when he spoke of Alex.

"Although his body is no longer alive, his spirit is alive and well and in a better place, looking down on us," he said. "He is free."