Search teams in Florida discovered a male body while combing the coast for a missing diver, but it was determined that the body did not belong to the missing diver, who was identified as Virgil Price. Price, a 39-year-old Florida free diver, was last seen wearing a green wet suit near the Halsey, a World War II-era shipwreck, before failing to resurface. Authorities stated that the body found in the water did not match the physical characteristics of Price and appeared to be over 50 years old, weighing between 200 and 225 pounds. The cause and approximate time of death for the unidentified body are still under investigation.
The sunken ship where the diver went missing, the Halsey, had reached its final resting place on May 6, 1942. The ship sank after being struck by a torpedo while en route from Corpus Christi, Texas, to New York, coming to rest on a sand bottom beneath 65 feet of water. The U.S. Coast Guard, after searching for 36 hours and covering 1,415 miles, decided to suspend the search for Price and extended condolences to his family. The decision to suspend the search was not taken lightly, and authorities are continuing investigations into both the missing diver and the unidentified body found during the search.
The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office assisted in recovering the unknown body from the water during the search for the missing diver. Medical examiners are working to determine the cause of death and the approximate time of death for the unidentified body. While authorities have not yet been able to identify the body found in the water, they have ruled out that it belonged to the missing diver, Virgil Price. The community has expressed condolences for Price and his family during this challenging time as the investigations continue.
Virgil Price was a Florida free diver who went missing near the Halsey, a sunken World War II-era shipwreck, and failed to resurface while diving in the area. Despite extensive search efforts by search teams along the Florida coast, an unidentified male body was found, which was later determined not to be that of Price. Price was last seen wearing a green wet suit before his disappearance, and the details surrounding his disappearance and the discovery of the unidentified body are still being investigated by authorities. The decision to suspend the search for Price was made after the U.S. Coast Guard covered significant ground and expressed condolences to his family.
Authorities in St. Lucie County, located about 130 miles north of Miami, are working on both investigations related to the missing diver, Virgil Price, and the unidentified body found during the search. The body found in the water did not match the physical characteristics or description of Price, who was 39 years old, further complicating the search efforts. The Halsey, where Price went missing, is a sunken ship that had reached its final resting place in 1942 after being struck by a torpedo while on a journey from Texas to New York. The investigations into both incidents are ongoing, with medical examiners looking into the cause and time of death for the unidentified body as the community mourns the loss of Virgil Price.
