Divers identified in apparent Rockport drowning accident
ROCKPORT — Authorities are investigating the apparent drowning of two divers whose bodies were recovered from Front Beach in Rockport on Wednesday, officials said.
The victims were identified as Alan De Oliveira Leao, 75, of Pepperell and Richard Brady, 78, of Hampton, N.H., law enforcement officials said Thursday night.
Leao’s body was discovered Wednesday afternoon and Brady’s in the early evening by the State Police Dive Team, according to a statement from Rockport Police Chief John Horvath and Essex District Attorney Paul F. Tucker’s office.
On Wednesday, at approximately 11:05 a.m., Rockport police were notified that a diver was in medical distress on Front Beach and emergency medical aid was subsequently provided by bystanders, police and ambulance personnel, the statement said.
The diver was later identified as Leao, who was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, officials said.
At around 3 p.m. investigators learned that a second diver was missing. The body of that diver, later identified as Brady, was recovered from the ocean off Front Beach and pronounced dead, according to the statement.
Foul play is not suspected in the deaths, which remain under investigation by Rockport police and State Police assigned to Tucker’s office.
Weather at the beach was good Wednesday, with clear skies and a light southeast wind, and the water was not choppy, according to Rockport harbormaster’s office employee who declined to give her name.
Joan Brennan Kelley, 88, who lives in a house on Front Beach, said she witnessed emergency responders rushing to the first diver, who was lying in the beach’s northwest corner. She said they began CPR, before moving him to a stretcher and rushing him to an ambulance.
“It was awful, and I was standing out here watching everything, and realized I was standing next to the wife of the other man who was still missing,” Kelley said. “She told me they were experienced divers and were testing out their equipment before they went on a dive trip in another country.”
Kelley, who has lived on the beach more than 20 years, described it as “a mother’s beach.”
“There’s rarely waves, and it’s usually calm, so it’s great for families with small children. You can park right here, and it’s shallow for a bit before it gets deep,” she said. “It’s a beautiful spot, but it’s had some tragedies in the time I’ve lived here.”
She recalled at least one diver fatality.
“It’s so sad. You come down on a beautiful day to do something you love, and it ends in a tragedy. My heart goes out to them.”
Front Beach and Back Beach are adjacent small waterfront areas separated by a rocky headland in the heart of downtown Rockport. They are popular with visitors because they are around the corner from the touristy downtown centered around Bearskin Neck.
The two beaches have long been a mecca for divers, and the site of many scuba classes, thanks to their shallow entries, relatively calm waters, and easy parking.
On Thursday, a smattering of tourists and locals walked along Front Beach in the summer-like warmth, posed for photos, and took dips in the water.
Mike Merriman, who has taught diving classes at the beach, said the area is “a relatively calm and protected dive site” and it was “way too early to speculate” about what went wrong.
Bruce Webber, who has been diving in Rockport for 20 years, said Front Beach is one of his favorite spots.
“It’s a nice, easy entry. It’s probably one of the easiest areas you could use in the area,” he said. “It’s a spot, actually, where a lot of the local dive shops will hold their open water certification classes.”
Webber said visibility could have been an issue for the divers, or they could have encountered any number of other difficulties.
“It could have been anything. Air quality. Gear. It could have been a medical emergency ... entanglement, though there’s not much there to get entangled in,” he said.
Francis Linnehan, owner of Down Under Diving Ventures in Gloucester, has been diving off Cape Ann since 1976, and described Front Beach as “a fairly simple area to dive from.”
“Unless they were diving in nasty sea conditions, it should be fine,” Linnehan said.
Though the waters may not generally be treacherous, Rockport and neighboring Gloucester have been the site of other diving tragedies, including one less than three months ago.
In July, a 40-year-old South Boston woman died two days after she went diving from a charter boat off Rockport, according to the Essex district attorney’s office. Sara Elizabeth Nivens had “difficulty” and was brought back onto the boat, then taken to Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester, and later transferred to Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, where she died.
In May 2018, a New Hampshire firefighter died in a diving accident off Gloucester.
Benjamin Tatro, a 20-year veteran of the Swanzey Fire Department and rescue diver, was diving recreationally near a shipwreck when he was found tangled in lines, the Essex district attorney’s office said. Tatro was helped to the surface and was initially alert. But a short time later he experienced a medical emergency and was taken to Addison Gilbert Hospital, where he died.