FBI DIVE TEAMS
Underwater Evidence Collection
08/08/05
What happens when
a body, a murder weapon, or other incriminating evidence ends up on the
bottom of a lake? Or if a ship or harbor is attacked by terrorists?
We call in our FBI
dive teams.
Our underwater experts
can find clues and map out crime scenes in exactly those places and more:
under ice, in fast-moving water, around piers and bridges and under extreme
underwater conditions like limited and zero visibility.
They’ve
got some fancy tools and technologies to help them do their jobs: “side-scan
sonar” that can detect debris not only in murky waters but also
in mud and silt…underwater metal detectors…dry suits with
full face masks and communicators so divers can talk to each other
and to colleagues above water…miniature remote-controlled subs
that send real-time color video to the surface for on-the-spot identification
and that can make videotapes of underwater searches for future use.
We’ve called
on our dive teams—now officially known as Underwater Search and
Evidence Response Teams, or USERTs—many times over the years since
the first one was launched in 1982. For example:
- When TWA
Flight 800 exploded over the Atlantic in 1996, our New York team
helped scour a 40-square mile patch of the ocean floor, recovering
the remains of all 230 victims and 96 percent of the airplane.
- Following
a kidnapping in California, we used our sonar and small sub to recover
four bodies that had been weighted down and dropped in a lake 300
feet deep.
- In one case,
we recovered a handgun buried in three inches of silt in a rushing,
murky North Carolina river.
- Our teams
have even traveled overseas to support such investigations as the
terrorist attack on the USS Cole.
And sometimes
they work in the name of prevention: following the 1996 bombing
at the Atlanta Olympics, our divers spent many nights checking for
possible explosive devices on an underwater structure of a massive
stand for 15,000 spectators.
Where are
our teams located? In four cities—New York, Washington,
Miami, and Los Angeles, with the national program managed by our FBI
Laboratory in Quantico, Va. Each 12-member team serves a general territory,
but divers fill in on other teams as needed.
These dives may sound
like fun, but like any trek into unknown aquatic environments, they’re
often difficult and dangerous. Divers endure long bottom times, often
in murky water and freezing temperatures, and may bump into uncharted
obstacles or hazardous debris. They also face medical conditions like
decompression and nitrogen narcosis. That’s why we have a specially-trained
medical technician close at hand on each dive mission, and why each mission
is meticulously planned and executed.
Want to learn
more about underwater evidence recovery? Check out two past
articles from our Law Enforcement Bulletin: “Forensic
Diving” and “Myths
of Underwater Recovery Operations”.
Links: The
FBI Lab