Peabody man dies after fall off party boat
Heartbroken mom: He was one of the kindest people I knew
An end-of-summer celebration on Boston Harbor turned tragic for a young Peabody man when he plummeted to his death from a “Get Lei’D At Sea” cruise Saturday night, triggering a frantic search by air and sea to find him in the pitch darkness.
“He was one of the kindest people I knew. They broke the mold when they made him,” a heartbroken Suzanne Dibella, 51, said yesterday of her 21-year-old son Aaron Dibella.
Bay State Cruise Co. owner Michael Glasfeld said a crew member had asked Aaron Dibella to climb down from the Provincetown II’s bulwark minutes before he fell while he was allegedly doing “a type of vertical push-up.”
The cruise line said in a statement that Aaron Dibella initially did as he was asked, but when the crew member turned his back “the passenger started in on the even more dramatic form of dangerous play.”
He was reported overboard from the 194-foot vessel at approximately 8:30 p.m. Saturday near Peddocks Island in Hull, 75 minutes into the cruise. Glasfeld said a crew member jumped in to try to save him.
“We had him located and illuminated with the ship’s spot light, the several life rings were within just a few feet of him, and a crew member was additionally in the water also within 5 feet of him to assist,” Glasfeld said. “Despite these efforts, the passenger succumbed and was lost.”
Dibella went overboard while partying aboard the tropical luauthemed “Get Lei’D At Sea” cruise, according to event listings and posters. The privately chartered cruise was scheduled to conclude at approximately 10 p.m. and featured dancing and entertainment. Glasfeld said bar service was shut down an hour early after Dibella went overboard about 8:30 p.m. “out of respect to the unfolding event.”
State police divers located the body at a depth of 45 feet in the Fore River Channel in Weymouth at 12:47 a.m. yesterday using sonar activated by state Environmental Police.
A multiagency search led by the U.S. Coast Guard spanned 14 nautical miles, but state police spokesman David Procopio said the recovery was made “approximately 100 yards from the coordinates where he had gone overboard.”
The investigation into Dibella’s death is being handled by state police detectives assigned to Plymouth District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz’s office.
Suzanne Dibella said her son was a 2015 graduate of Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and was working toward his dream of being a journeyman electrician. She said he had also attended, but not completed, Army basic training.
In addition to his mother, Aaron Dibella is survived by his 24-yearold sister, Samantha.
“I’m trying to take it one step at a time,” Suzanne Dibella said. “My emotions are all over the place.”
Jordan Geannaris, 22, who was not on the cruise, said Aaron Dibella “was a close friend of mine, but I considered him family. He was very fit. He was always working out. There’s no doubt in my mind that he would have been able to swim. It’s hard for me to grasp it and accept it. He was a great man — always full of good energy, always had a smile on his face, always laughing.”