On a fateful day in January 1998, Tom and Eileen Lonergan boarded a scuba dive boat to explore an area of the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast.
The American couple spent more than half an hour underwater, gliding through the breathtaking valleys of the St Crispin Reef, admiring the coral stretched out like the branches of a submerged forest.
But when they resurfaced, their dive boat, the Outer Edge, was nowhere to be seen. Tragically, no one realised the married couple had not returned from their scuba dive until two days later.
When rescuers scoured the shark-infested diving spot, Tom, 33, and Eileen, 22, were nowhere to be found.
Investigators discovered their personal diaries in their hostel room in Cairns, in Queensland on Australia’s east coast, which revealed several disturbing entries.
‘I feel as though my life is complete and I’m ready to die,’ Tom had written six months before him and Eileen vanished. ‘As far as I can tell, from here my life can only get worse. It has peaked and it’s all downhill from here until my funeral.’
One of Eileen’s last diary entries, just 16 days before the pair disappeared, hinted at personal troubles.
‘Tom hopes to die a quick and fairly painly [believed to mean painless] death and he hopes it happens soon. Tom’s not suicidal, but he’s got a death wish that could lead him to what he desires, and I could get caught in that.’
On a fateful day in January 1998, Tom and Eileen Lonergan (pictured) boarded a scuba dive boat to explore an area of the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast
The American couple spent more than half an hour underwater, gliding through the breathtaking valleys of the St Crispin Reef, admiring the coral stretched out like the branches of a submerged forest (file image of divers exploring St Crispin Reef)
But when they resurfaced, their dive boat, the Outer Edge, was nowhere to be seen. Tragically, no one realised the married couple had not returned from their scuba dive until two days later. When rescuers scoured the shark-infested diving spot, Tom, 33, and Eileen, 22, were nowhere to be found (stock image of sharks at a reef)
Tom Lonergan, a balding chemical engineer, and dark-haired Eileen, got married in their home town of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, nine years prior to their trip after meeting at Louisiana State University.
Seeking adventure, they joined the US Peace Corps in 1995 and were assigned work as teachers in the poverty-stricken Pacific islands of Tuvalu and Fiji.
In January 1998, they left for Australia – the last stop on their great adventure before returning to the US.
On Sunday, January 25, they took the hour-long coach journey from Cairns to Port Douglas, where they boarded the Outer Edge for the voyage to St Crispin Reef, 38 miles offshore.
They enjoyed two 40-minute dives, and later prepared for a third dive at a site known as Fish City because of its abundance of underwater life.
There were dozens of sharks around the reef at the time, according to local fisherman Mick Bird, who was a few miles away that day. ‘Every time we threw a line, we’d pull in a shark – they should rename that place Shark City,’ he said.
British diver Bryan Brogdan and the Lonergans admired a giant clam embedded in the reef, the blue waters illuminated by shafts of sunlight.
Then Brogdan had left them to return to the boat as Tom and Eileen stayed down longer than the dive boat crew instructed. He would be the last person to see them alive.
Around 3pm, when everyone should have been back on board, Geoffrey ‘Jack’ Nairn, the former skipper of the Outer Edge, asked crew member George Pyrohiw to do a headcount – a vital practice that should have been conducted with the greatest care.
The Lonergans enjoyed two 40-minute dives, and later prepared for a third dive at a site known as Fish City because of its abundance of underwater life (pictured: Tom Lonergan)
British diver Bryan Brogdan and the Lonergans admired a giant clam embedded in the reef, the blue waters illuminated by shafts of sunlight. Then Brogdan had left them to return to the boat as Tom and Eileen stayed down longer than the dive boat crew instructed. He would be the last person to see them alive (pictured: Eileen Lonergan)
Twenty-six people should have been on board. But as Pyrohiw was counting, two divers jumped into the water to take last-minute photos. Pyrohiw told Nairn he’d counted only 24.
According to Pyrohiw, the skipper then said: ‘And two in the water makes 26.’ Mr Nairn disputes this, but in any case, it seems that the two passengers who jumped overboard were counted twice.
After the Outer Edge docked at Port Douglas late that afternoon and the passengers disembarked, the crew noticed that two dive bags remained on board.
They were simply moved to another part of the boat; the crew assumed the owners would ring once they realised they’d left them behind.
Mistake after mistake followed. In addition to the bags, an inventory showed the boat was missing two air tanks and two weightbelts – but no one queried this.
Norm Stigant, the driver whose job was to take passengers back to their hotels, told his boss that the Lonergans had not shown up for the ride, but was urged not to worry and eventually left without them.
Night closed in. The Lonergans were still out there… and no one knew.
The following day, the Outer Edge returned to St Crispin Reef with new passengers, its crew still unaware of the tragedy that had occurred.
On Sunday, January 25, they took the hour-long coach journey from Cairns to Port Douglas, where they boarded the Outer Edge for the voyage to St Crispin Reef, 38 miles offshore
Tom Lonergan, a balding chemical engineer, and dark-haired Eileen, got married in their home town of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, nine years prior to their trip after meeting at Louisiana State University
Divers descended to marvel at the fish – and within a short time had spotted and retrieved two weight-belts on the seabed. The find provoked no action or comment.
Another day went by, and the Outer Edge took out a new boatload of passengers and then returned to Port Douglas for the second time since the Lonergans’ fateful dive.
But there were still the unclaimed dive bags on the boat, and at last skipper Jack Nairn decided to open them.
He found a wallet and ID documents, and a shirt that Tom Lonergan had been wearing on the day of the dive trip. Realising something was terribly wrong, he reached for the phone.
It was now 51 hours since the Lonergans had last been seen. They had not returned to their hotel, and police soon discovered their credit cards had not been used. A huge air and sea search was mounted, but no trace of the couple was found.
Ten days later, Tom’s buoyancy jacket, with his name neatly printed on the pocket, was found 50 miles north of St Crispin Reef.
A green and grey wetsuit, believed to be Eileen’s, was later washed up. It had jagged tears in the buttocks area, presumed to have been caused by a shark. Her buoyancy jacket, hood, fins and air tank eventually washed ashore, too.
But it was six months before the ocean yielded its most sickening legacy. In July, a fisherman 90 miles north of St Crispin Reef hauled in a slate that divers use to write notes to each other underwater.
The bodies of the adventure-loving couple have never been found – just a mangled wetsuit and some of their equipment (file image of divers at St Crispin Reef)
On it was a faded cry for help which read: ‘Monday, January 26, 1998. 8am. To anyone who can help us. We have been abandoned here by the Outer Edge. Please help us or we will die. Tom and Eileen Lonergan.’
Experts have been unable to agree if the find is genuine or a cruel hoax.
The bodies of the adventure-loving couple have never been found – just a mangled wetsuit and some of their equipment. Various theories as to what happened after the boat left the reef were put forward during the investigation and the coroner’s inquest.
Detective Sergeant Paul Priest said at the inquest a few months after the couple’s disappearance that he had initially found the diaries discovered in their hostel room ‘chillingly bizarre’ and ‘prophetic’, but he had eventually dismissed them as the private musings of an introspective couple.
The Lonergans’ disappearance inspired the film Open Water.
Set in the Bahamas rather than on the Great Barrier Reef, the director subjected the actors to an ordeal intended to capture the panic and fear likely felt by the couple after they realised the dive boat had left without them.
Cameras were fixed to buoys so that the audience could share the eye-level drama as real sharks circled them (although bloodied pieces of tuna were tossed into the sea to ensure the sharks had an alternative food source).
