The diving detective: Scuba explorer finds camera

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...m-river-750408

Mary Stallard and Andrew Sully thought their photos were lost for ever when their canoe capsized on the Dordogne River in France

A scuba diving explorer turned detective to reunite a family with their holiday snaps after retrieving their camera from a river bed.

Mary Stallard and Andrew Sully, both vicars, thought their photos were lost for ever when their canoe capsized on the Dordogne River in France and their camera sank to the bottom.

Until, two weeks later, Kevin Quirin found the camera as he was exploring the river bed.

Then the scuba sleuth downloaded the photos on the memory card and followed the clues to track down the owners.

He deduced Andrew’s surname was Sully because he found two funny pictures of him posing next to signs featuring the word “Sully”.

Next, having studied images of the 44-year-old reverend taking part in a charity bike ride in Paris, he broadened his search to find the event on the charity donation website JustGiving.

There, Kevin, 23, a maths student from Rennes, Brittany, found the name Andrew Sully and emailed him, saying: “I think I’ve found your camera.”

A stunned but delighted Andrew, of Llangollen, near Wrexham, North Wales, quickly responded, telling Kevin: “This is a remarkable bit of detective work.

“The camera was lost while my family and I were canoeing – you know this from the photos, of course. We fell into the river at the bridge in Pinsac, as you also know.”

Yesterday, Mary, 45, added: “I couldn’t believe that not only did Kevin find our camera but he then managed to track us down. What he did was quite amazing. We are delighted to get our photos back. They give us happy memories of our holiday before we capsized.”

The couple were on holiday in France with their daughters Joanna, 15, and Cerys, 12, in August last year. After visiting Paris, they travelled south to the Dordogne, which is where they lost their £100 camera.

Mary said: “It happened halfway through the second week of the holiday and we must have had 100 photos on our camera.

“Andrew dived in to see if he could retrieve it but he couldn’t see anything because the water was a bit murky.

“We returned home a few days later and didn’t think any more of it. Then, out of the blue, we received an email from a guy saying he had found our camera.”

Kevin said: “I was scuba diving with friends when I saw this shiny thing on the river bed and grabbed it.

“The camera didn’t work but the card was OK and after I dried it out I put it into my PC.

“I saw the pictures of the bike ride and found Andrew’s name on Justgiving and then saw the two photos of him next to the signs and put two and two together.

“I thought that this family would be happy to have their holiday photos back.”