Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / PARASAIL NIGHTMARE, Mom DEAD, Husband: 'Fun is not worth a life'

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PARASAIL NIGHTMARE, Mom DEAD, Husband: 'Fun is not worth a life' · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, the loving husband of a
0:13
Speaker 1: woman who was killed during a parasling accident, and trust me,
0:19
Speaker 1: I am using air quotes on that down in the
0:22
Speaker 1: Florida Keys, a memorial Day speaks out for the first time,
0:27
Speaker 1: telling about the horrific day. His wife, just thirty three
0:31
Speaker 1: years old, in the prime of her life, their ten
0:34
Speaker 1: year old son, and the nine year old nephew were
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Speaker 1: all three cut loose from their paracel by the captain
0:45
Speaker 1: after they were caught in wind guss up to thirty
0:48
Speaker 1: miles an hour. Of course, the device crashes back down
0:53
Speaker 1: to Earth, hitting the old seven mile bridge down in
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Speaker 1: the Keys near Marathon, Florida, killing the mommy. Now we
1:05
Speaker 1: learn the dad was literally screaming and begging the captain
1:12
Speaker 1: to save his wife, son, and nephew. Well, that didn't happen.
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Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for
1:22
Speaker 1: being with us here at Crime Stories and on series
1:24
Speaker 1: XXEM one eleven. I'm just imagining that scene. I can
1:30
Speaker 1: just imagine my husband David out on the water with
1:35
Speaker 1: me up in the air paraceiling with the twins. Then
1:39
Speaker 1: things go sideways and him down there begging, begging, screaming
1:45
Speaker 1: for the captain to save us. Me looking down if
1:48
Speaker 1: I could from up in the air is thirty miles
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Speaker 1: an hour. Winds toss me and the twins around. I
1:55
Speaker 1: can hardly even think about it. As a matter of fact.
1:59
Speaker 1: It's reminding me something. We went on a trip with
2:03
Speaker 1: my mother, the twins, Dave, and I out to Vegas,
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Speaker 1: not to gamble. I do not like to gamble. I
2:10
Speaker 1: feel like I might as well throw my money out
2:12
Speaker 1: on Third Avenue. But we like to go see the shows.
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Speaker 1: We like to go hiking down in Red Rock Valley,
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Speaker 1: go to all the fancy restaurants, really have a good time. Well,
2:26
Speaker 1: we were also okay. We went to Hoover Dam, which
2:29
Speaker 1: was awesome and got a tour of that. But the
2:32
Speaker 1: day we went to Hoover Dam, we were supposed to
2:35
Speaker 1: go on a helicopter tour. And the twins had never
2:41
Speaker 1: been on a helicopter. I had only been on them
2:43
Speaker 1: when my investigator would fly me to various jails across
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Speaker 1: the Southeast to interview defendants. So this is the first
2:52
Speaker 1: time on a helicopter. And you go dad into the
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Speaker 1: Grand Canyon and then you have lunch down there and
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Speaker 1: you hike and then it brings you back that day
3:01
Speaker 1: the winds. I believe they were in the upper twenties
3:05
Speaker 1: to thirties, and David, who has a level head, said
3:10
Speaker 1: we are not going up in a helicopter. I'm like, David, look,
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Speaker 1: they wouldn't take us up if they thought it wasn't safe.
3:19
Speaker 1: And he said, I don't care what they say. We're
3:21
Speaker 1: not going. Do you know it was several months after
3:24
Speaker 1: we came back that there was a fatal helicopter crash
3:27
Speaker 1: with the same company in Vegas going out in Wing Gus.
3:32
Speaker 1: The point is this mom and dad probably relied on
3:36
Speaker 1: the captain to say and decide whether it was safe,
3:40
Speaker 1: and their mommy and the son and the nephew end
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Speaker 1: up way up in the air in wing us of
3:47
Speaker 1: thirty miles an hour. And you should see that bridge.
3:51
Speaker 1: It is old, it is cement. The thought of them
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Speaker 1: crashing into that that's devastating. In the last days, the
4:02
Speaker 1: dad speaks out about his ordeal. Take a listen to
4:05
Speaker 1: our friends at GMA, Good Morning America.
4:10
Speaker 2: Your your wife, your son, your nephew. They get into
4:15
Speaker 2: the ParaSail and they take off. What happens next.
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Speaker 3: The captain started kind of and concerned, and his actions.
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Speaker 1: Was kind of terrified. And I was also scared.
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Speaker 2: When the boat's crew could not reel in the ParaSail,
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Speaker 2: the captain made the decision to cut it loose. What
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Speaker 2: were you thinking when you saw him cut the rope?
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Speaker 3: Whatever he was doing, he was concerning for all of us.
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Speaker 3: I didn't exactly see when he did. When he cut
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Speaker 3: the rope, it was kind of like and terrifying and
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Speaker 3: horrible moments.
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Speaker 1: What happened to this beautiful young mom, just gorgeous young mom,
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Speaker 1: so loving, so dedicated to for children. Why did this
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Speaker 1: have to happen? Let's start where I like to start
5:06
Speaker 1: every single jury trial if I can, and that is
5:09
Speaker 1: with the nine to one one call.
5:12
Speaker 4: Listen, nine one, where's your emergency?
5:15
Speaker 5: On the ocean? By pigeon t A pair of sailors
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Speaker 5: line just broke free in there in the waters.
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Speaker 4: Okay, hold on a second. Let me see it's part
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Speaker 4: of the water. Seven my bridge.
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Speaker 5: You said, yes, you're right here. Pigeon, Pye, pidgeon, ky,
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Speaker 5: there is hold on. I'm not physically there. My husband
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Speaker 5: called and he said to report it. He's on the water,
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Speaker 5: and I'll give you his number. If he needs Okay.
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Speaker 4: So it's a ParaSail.
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Speaker 5: Yep, they were parasailing and the line just snapped and
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Speaker 5: the boat's trying to get to the person. But he's
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Speaker 5: all half napped.
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Speaker 4: Okay, and what end of the bridge you know? OHI
6:00
Speaker 4: could be Okay, let me see if I've got somebody
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Speaker 4: in the water. What is your name? Okay, I'm going
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Speaker 4: to try to get him out there. So there were
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Speaker 4: how many subjects ron the pairs of do you know
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Speaker 4: are in the water?
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Speaker 5: Idea? He's just in the distance and it sounds like
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Speaker 5: several boths are trying to get to the person, but
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Speaker 5: he just wanted to report it, not knocking. What's going
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Speaker 5: to happen next?
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Speaker 4: Okay, thank you, thank you.
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Speaker 1: A gorgeous young mother tries to entertain her children taking
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Speaker 1: them on this para saling excursion, this adventure. How many
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Speaker 1: times have we done something like that? I've done parasaling,
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Speaker 1: but I've done other things.
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Speaker 6: And she's dead.
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Speaker 1: She is dead. I've got an all star panel to
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Speaker 1: make sense of what we know right now. Michael Winkleman,
6:43
Speaker 1: high profile mayor, time attorney, joining us out of Miami
6:46
Speaker 1: at Lipkan Margulis and Winkleman he's quite the expert. Doctor
6:51
Speaker 1: Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrists, joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction.
6:55
Speaker 1: You can find her at Angela Arnold MD dot com.
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Speaker 1: Robert Crispin talk about Gumshoe private investigator extraordinaire at Crispin
7:04
Speaker 1: Special Investigations. You can find them at Crispin Investigations dot com.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Tim Gallagher a very special guest joining us. Mark mccohaugh,
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Speaker 1: a paarasailing safety expert and the chairman of Parasale Safety
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Speaker 1: Council for First Tim O'Hara joining US reporter with a
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Speaker 1: key West citizen, Tim O'Hara, I want you to hear
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Speaker 1: a little bit more of this nine to one one call. Listen,
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Speaker 1: Tim nine one one.
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Speaker 4: Where is your emergency?
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Speaker 5: The Creven mile Bridge east of Mergers Channel.
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Speaker 4: There was a parasailor.
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Speaker 7: North of Doctor Bridge and the road growth.
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Speaker 6: And a right.
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Speaker 4: Okay, I've got a call on this already. I just
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Speaker 4: want to ask you a couple of questions. Hold on okay,
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Speaker 4: additional color okay? And can you tell me just one mail?
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Speaker 5: We don't know.
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Speaker 4: It was one person in the parasale right, okay, So
8:08
Speaker 4: there's one person in the water.
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Speaker 8: Now he's being drug.
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Speaker 5: Across the water by the saale being drug.
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Speaker 4: Okay, mos Loasure channel. Okay, we're gonna We've got deputies
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Speaker 4: and FWC and everybody on the way out there. I'm
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Speaker 4: going to get the medical out there to stage form.
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Speaker 1: So thank you Tim O'Hara joining me from the Key
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Speaker 1: West citizen. Tim, thanks for being with us. What happened?
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Speaker 6: You know you have multiple boats saying, you know, we
8:34
Speaker 6: see this what they had thought that the line had snapped.
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Speaker 6: We later found out it was cut, but it did snap.
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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, but wait wait wait, wait, wait wait wait.
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Speaker 1: You know Tim O'Hara talking to us like drinking from
8:47
Speaker 1: a fire, hijrat. It's just so much at once. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I can't take it all in. You said, okay, first
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Speaker 1: we thought the paris first. First, Mark mccullaugh joining us
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Speaker 1: parasaling safety expert. I know you can hear Tim O'Hara
9:01
Speaker 1: crack reporter with a Key West citizen. What is he
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Speaker 1: talking about? What did he just say?
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Speaker 7: Well, it sounded like what the person that called nine
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Speaker 7: to one one thought they saw the parasl snap.
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Speaker 1: The line snap, So that means while the person parasiling
9:19
Speaker 1: means you get into some contraption with a sail like
9:25
Speaker 1: off a sailboat behind you, and you're attached to a
9:28
Speaker 1: cord like you you're skiing behind a boat, and then
9:32
Speaker 1: the cord is attached to I guess a speedboat, and
9:36
Speaker 1: a speedboat takes off and then you're, in theory supposed
9:39
Speaker 1: to go up in the air and sail behind it.
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Speaker 1: Is that what you call parasiling?
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Speaker 6: That's correct?
9:44
Speaker 1: Okay? Then what is it when we drive past the
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Speaker 1: water and we see people out there on a it
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Speaker 1: looks like a little floaty like a boogie board, and
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Speaker 1: they've got to sail on it and they're they're guiding
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Speaker 1: it with their hands and their body.
10:01
Speaker 7: What is that? That's not? That's not parasaling. What is
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Speaker 7: that's it's like sailboarding?
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Speaker 1: Sailboarding? Okay, okay, so we're not talking about that, we're
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Speaker 1: talking about parasailing. I'm repeating to you questions that I've
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Speaker 1: gotten on Insta, Twitter, and Facebook, So don't kill the messenger.
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Speaker 1: And also I wanted to hear the difference too. So
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Speaker 1: that's called what did you say, chrismin? Is that you
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Speaker 1: jumping in?
10:24
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's kite boarding as tight boarding.
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Speaker 1: Okay, parasailing whole nother animal. Now, Tim O'Hara joining us
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Speaker 1: Key West citizen, did I hear you correctly that at
10:37
Speaker 1: first what onlookers witnesses thought the cord had snapped.
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Speaker 6: Correct and the the what turned out to be three
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Speaker 6: people in the harness of that well basically being blown
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Speaker 6: across a sort of a bay area in an area
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Speaker 6: where there is a seven mile bridge, a very large
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Speaker 6: concrete in steel structure.
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Speaker 1: So what does that mean, Mark McCollough, for the line
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Speaker 1: to just snap?
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Speaker 7: Well, and there are most of the accidents that result
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Speaker 7: in deaths have been in high winds where the line
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Speaker 7: actually actually disconnects from the boat.
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Speaker 1: Disconnects.
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Speaker 7: Yeah, well it's snapped, I mean a line snap.
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Speaker 9: Okay.
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Speaker 1: See to me, the meaning of snap means the cord breaks,
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Speaker 1: But according to you, snap means it comes disengaged or
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Speaker 1: unattached to the boat. Which one is it disengage from
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Speaker 1: the boat? Okay, Tim o'herri, is that what you meant?
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Speaker 1: I thought that meant that the cord breaks in the air.
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Speaker 6: I'm sorry, it broke free from the vessel.
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Speaker 7: Okay.
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Speaker 1: And that's called snap A snap, yeah.
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Speaker 6: Yeah, with snap off or break off or disengaged. So
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Speaker 6: disengaged from the boat.
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Speaker 1: So lines, it's this parasal slang. I hear you. So
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Speaker 1: line snap means the cord becomes disengaged from the boat,
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Speaker 1: not that it breaks.
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Speaker 6: I would say it broke. It broke from the boat.
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Speaker 6: So now you have three people basically floating in the air.
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Speaker 1: So it became disengaged from the boat.
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Speaker 7: All right, they're not tethered to the boat anymore.
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Speaker 1: Prime Stories with Nancy Grace. We now learn that Mommy's
12:34
Speaker 1: husband begged the captain to help his wife. Listen to
12:40
Speaker 1: our friends at Good Morning America.
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Speaker 10: Tree is holding the captain's leg begging him to please
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Speaker 10: go out there and save them, and he goes ahead
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Speaker 10: and tells him, don't worry, the bridge will help.
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Speaker 1: That's where the per Yes, he said to you, the
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Speaker 1: bridge will help. Yeah, to the captain's leg, begging him
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Speaker 1: to save his wife, son, and nephew. The captain reportedly said,
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Speaker 1: don't worry, the bridge will help before he cuts them loose.
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Speaker 1: Back to you, Tim O'Hara, you then said you think
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Speaker 1: the captain of the boat cut it.
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Speaker 11: Yes?
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Speaker 6: Why, Well, that's going to be the biggest question as
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Speaker 6: part of this criminal investigation that in the weather is
13:29
Speaker 6: going to be the two biggest factors going into Sevester.
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Speaker 1: Tell me about the weather because a storm seemingly propelled them.
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Speaker 1: Who is them? All I know is about the thirty
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Speaker 1: three year old mom Sopriya and her nephew nephew nine
13:44
Speaker 1: years old Vishi and ten year old son Scria. Correct?
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Speaker 11: Correct?
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Speaker 1: WHOA, So you've got a nine and a ten year
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Speaker 1: old little boys up in the air parasailing in a
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Speaker 1: storm near a cement bridge. Do I have that much right? Yes?
14:01
Speaker 7: That's correct.
14:02
Speaker 6: But also also we are talking about Florida wear storms.
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Speaker 6: Wear storms do sort of like these little you know,
14:09
Speaker 6: I will call them squalls. You know, they can brew
14:12
Speaker 6: up very fairly quickly. Now you would think you would
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Speaker 6: see this somewhere in the distance and maybe or board
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Speaker 6: this trip.
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Speaker 1: Yes, okay, Can I just point something out to everybody?
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Speaker 1: Robert Crispin, private investigator joining me out of Florida right now.
14:28
Speaker 1: Has anybody heard of the Farmer's Almanac?
14:31
Speaker 3: Or is that just me?
14:32
Speaker 1: Because since I was a little girl, little little we
14:36
Speaker 1: had a copy black and white copy of the Farmer's
14:38
Speaker 1: Almanac always in the house. My grandmother had one, My
14:43
Speaker 1: great grandmother had one, so you have an idea about
14:47
Speaker 1: what the weather is going to be. Now, this happened
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Speaker 1: on what day? Tim O'Hare? What day did this happen?
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Speaker 1: I've got on May thirty, Memorial Day.
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Speaker 6: Correct.
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Speaker 1: We didn't know there was going to be a storm.
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Speaker 6: See, I'll tell you you know. Of course we have
15:01
Speaker 6: all heard about that, but today's.
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Speaker 11: Technology, and we're in rainy season, and everybody knows rainy season.
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Speaker 11: The rains every single day, and these squalls come up
15:10
Speaker 11: out of nowhere. And this is just an epic failure
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Speaker 11: at the helm by the captain on so many different
15:16
Speaker 11: levels from that trip should have probably never went down,
15:21
Speaker 11: or that captain saw that, and those people should have
15:24
Speaker 11: been brought down immediately, but he elected to keep them up.
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Speaker 1: And to you, Michael Winkelman, a high profile lawyer joining
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Speaker 1: me out of Miami. Michael, they didn't know there was
15:35
Speaker 1: going to be a major storm that propelled this young
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Speaker 1: mother and a ten year old little boy, and now
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Speaker 1: the mom is dead.
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Speaker 9: The singular comment that I'll make in defense of these
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Speaker 9: operators was that these storms do come out of nowhere.
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Speaker 9: But I find that to be such a feeble excuse,
15:53
Speaker 9: because Lord of a statute requires them to have whether
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Speaker 9: determining capability out there so they can know exactly what's coming.
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Speaker 9: Combine that with a small dose of common sense, which
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Speaker 9: is looking around and seeing the storms coming, and things
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Speaker 9: like this never happened. And look, this is what I
16:11
Speaker 9: do for a living. I just finished the case out
16:12
Speaker 9: of Mexico where a woman was at a resort down there.
16:15
Speaker 9: They wanted these fly by night operations. Took her up
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Speaker 9: from the beach. You could see the storm off in
16:20
Speaker 9: the distance. The line snaps, She's in the air for
16:23
Speaker 9: forty five minutes and ends up crashing down in the
16:26
Speaker 9: airport in Mexico. Thank goodness, she survived. We successfully results
16:30
Speaker 9: her case. But look here we have this beautiful thirty
16:32
Speaker 9: three year old woman, and unfortunately the children did survive.
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Speaker 9: But you have these terrible tragedies that are are clearly preventable, clearly.
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Speaker 1: You know, Michael Winkelman. Just hearing you say that, you
16:44
Speaker 1: said this beautiful mom, and I said beautiful, and I
16:48
Speaker 1: don't mean just on the outside, I mean on the
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Speaker 1: insight to her little boy ten years old, her nephew
16:57
Speaker 1: nine years old. There's just you know, to you, doctor
17:02
Speaker 1: Angela Arnold, high profile psychiatrist joining me out of Atlanta.
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Speaker 1: She was beautiful on the inside. Now she was not
17:13
Speaker 1: a parasailing expert, but this captain was. How in the
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Speaker 1: h ell do you strap a nine and ten year
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Speaker 1: old little boy into a harness and put them up
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Speaker 1: in the air on the day of a storm near
17:27
Speaker 1: a cement bridge with the unassuming mommy. Mommy probably helped
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Speaker 1: harness them in. I mean, it's just it's just all wrong.
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Speaker 1: Help me, doctor Auntie.
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Speaker 12: Well, you know, Nancy, what you said at the beginning
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Speaker 12: about the kids trusting their mom and then there's a
17:45
Speaker 12: there's a trust that if you give your money to
17:48
Speaker 12: someone and they have a boat and a pair of sail,
17:51
Speaker 12: that they know what they're doing. Otherwise that woman wouldn't
17:55
Speaker 12: have taken those kids up on that pair of sale,
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Speaker 12: no way. So you automatically trust that. And it's fun.
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Speaker 13: They're from Illinois, they're down in Florida for Memorial Day,
18:07
Speaker 13: and they wanted to do something different. And unless Nancy,
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Speaker 13: they're into crime like you are and I am, and
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Speaker 13: they're hearing these stories constantly, then they may not think
18:20
Speaker 13: about the danger that may be lying in one of
18:23
Speaker 13: these activities.
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Speaker 1: I think you lower your guard when you're on vacation.
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Speaker 1: I do, Tean. I don't know what that phenomenon is. Guys,
18:31
Speaker 1: take a listen to our cut three our friends at WPLG.
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Speaker 14: It happened Monday evening, a witness describing a harrowing scene
18:38
Speaker 14: when bad weather blew in around six pm. We're told
18:41
Speaker 14: people were parasailing when the tow line broke, sending the
18:45
Speaker 14: shoot into the bridge. At least one good samaritan in
18:48
Speaker 14: this white center console helped cut the line, getting a
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Speaker 14: woman and two children out of their harnesses and onto
18:54
Speaker 14: his boat. A Marathon City official tells Local ten the
18:58
Speaker 14: sunset grill on the east side of the bridge is
19:01
Speaker 14: where the victims were taken. We saw Florida Fish and
19:03
Speaker 14: Wildlife officers speaking to several people who were then escorted
19:07
Speaker 14: to their van. Monroe County Sheriff's off his deputies also unseen.
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Speaker 14: Sources say the woman in the parasale did not survive.
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Speaker 1: The captain making the disastrous decision to cut the rope
19:18
Speaker 1: attaching the parasal to the boat, causing the device to
19:23
Speaker 1: crash back down to earth, hitting those cement pilings out
19:29
Speaker 1: at Old seven Mile Bridge. Sopraja pronounced dead at the scene.
19:34
Speaker 1: Her son and nephew raced to the hospital. The indifference
19:40
Speaker 1: to the consequences of his decision resulted in death and
19:46
Speaker 1: serious injuries to the two little boys. This is what
19:52
Speaker 1: went down, this family down from Illinois. They go out, Okay,
19:57
Speaker 1: take it from there, so.
20:00
Speaker 6: Are you discussed. When they go out, they get three
20:03
Speaker 6: of them put in the harness of this. They get
20:06
Speaker 6: put up in in the paarasale. They are, you know,
20:10
Speaker 6: I don't know exactly how many miles off where the bridges,
20:12
Speaker 6: but the weather turns, as we spoke earlier, the the
20:20
Speaker 6: it's called pegued, and I'm sure you're a pair of
20:23
Speaker 6: sale expert can tell you a little bit more what
20:24
Speaker 6: that means. But basically means the weather is impacting the
20:28
Speaker 6: sail so much that it is that it's affecting the
20:35
Speaker 6: operation of the boat. And so the captain decides at
20:37
Speaker 6: that time to cut the line, basically disengaging the paarasal
20:42
Speaker 6: from the boat. And they are now, you know, being
20:46
Speaker 6: taken by the wind in the pairsail.
20:49
Speaker 1: Did you just call it pegging?
20:52
Speaker 6: That's what that's the term they use in the parasite,
20:57
Speaker 6: you know, uh world as when and basically the wind
21:02
Speaker 6: and the weather is impacting the actual operation of the boat,
21:06
Speaker 6: and that's when the captain decides to cut the line
21:09
Speaker 6: basically stream and that's what's going to be a huge
21:13
Speaker 6: part of this investigation, and I'm sure investigators have Well
21:17
Speaker 6: we'll ask that captain is why did you feel the
21:20
Speaker 6: right cause of action was to cut this line?
21:24
Speaker 1: Well, Tim O'Hara joining me from the Key West Citizen,
21:28
Speaker 1: you're absolutely correct, that is exactly what happened. Take a
21:31
Speaker 1: listen to our cut eight. This is Trent Kelly.
21:34
Speaker 10: Border Fish and Wildlife releasing this new report revealing the
21:37
Speaker 10: tow rope did not snap, but rather the captain cut
21:40
Speaker 10: the line, tethering the three victims after a gust of
21:43
Speaker 10: wind pegged the ParaSail, meaning the shoe turned into a
21:47
Speaker 10: sail and could have potentially.
21:49
Speaker 1: Dragged the boat.
21:50
Speaker 10: It says the woman and two kids were then dropped
21:53
Speaker 10: and dragged through the water by the inflated ParaSail, through
21:56
Speaker 10: and across the surface of the water before colliding with
21:59
Speaker 10: the raise. Video shows Callion's white center console arriving on
22:04
Speaker 10: scene as he and passengers performed CPR before racing everyone
22:09
Speaker 10: to the docks at the nearby sunset grill. The kid
22:12
Speaker 10: was he wasn't like screaming on the top of his lung,
22:16
Speaker 10: but he was letting me know, help me, help me.
22:19
Speaker 1: And we got him in the boat, you.
22:21
Speaker 10: Know, immediately, and then we got the other kid that
22:24
Speaker 10: was unconscious, and then we got his mom in the boat.
22:27
Speaker 10: One of the boys, just seven years old, was airlifted
22:29
Speaker 10: to Nicholas Children's Hospital. Monday, the thirty three year old
22:32
Speaker 10: woman identified as supraja Ala Parthy died from her injuries.
22:37
Speaker 1: Straight out to our expert joining us and we're so
22:40
Speaker 1: happier with us. Martin McCullough, the parasl Safety Council chairman.
22:46
Speaker 7: What is pegged, Yeah, I'm pegged is a term that's
22:49
Speaker 7: loosely loosely used term. It's a slang for maxed out,
22:54
Speaker 7: meaning more specifically, the paracel that it's maximum tow angle
22:58
Speaker 7: due to extreme wins. I mean that point the paracels
23:01
Speaker 7: violently swinging the back and forth like a pendulum, and
23:07
Speaker 7: of course the parasllers are attached there. They're helpless to
23:10
Speaker 7: stop it from oscillating back and forth. And it's right Actually,
23:14
Speaker 7: one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever witnessed.
23:16
Speaker 1: What do you mean by that? When did you witness
23:18
Speaker 1: this happen?
23:19
Speaker 7: Well, because I've been in the business since the seventies
23:21
Speaker 7: and I've I've seen just about every scenario of accident
23:25
Speaker 7: and uh and this has become an expert to this
23:30
Speaker 7: for these type of incidences of we're you know, we're
23:34
Speaker 7: or a captain ends up getting caught in a wind
23:37
Speaker 7: and the line separation or in this case cut, which
23:40
Speaker 7: I've never heard of before, but we don't know yet
23:45
Speaker 7: all the details. But that word pegg is it's rarely used,
23:50
Speaker 7: but that's what they mean.
23:51
Speaker 1: By it in this case. Did the captain send out
23:55
Speaker 1: any distress signal using as VHF radio?
23:58
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's one. That's why I have That's one of
24:01
Speaker 7: the several questions I had. You know that channel sixteen
24:05
Speaker 7: is a mariner's you know, they could call may day
24:08
Speaker 7: and that sort of that sort of takes presidents over.
24:11
Speaker 7: It's a designated distress frequency that broadcasts at the coast
24:15
Speaker 7: Guard and other voters and takes priority over the channels.
24:18
Speaker 7: So the big question is why did he you know,
24:21
Speaker 7: did he reach out? That doesn't sound like it, but
24:24
Speaker 7: we'll find out.
24:25
Speaker 1: Did he joining us Tim O'Hare from the QS Citizen.
24:29
Speaker 1: Did he call distress on his radio or did he
24:31
Speaker 1: have a radio? And did he have a chase voat?
24:33
Speaker 1: I mean, I've heard of chase voats where the operation
24:37
Speaker 1: has a backup and when I was still diving a
24:41
Speaker 1: lot all over the world. Typically there is a backup
24:45
Speaker 1: in case or some type of an accident. Did this
24:48
Speaker 1: guy have a chase voat or did he use his
24:50
Speaker 1: VHF radio.
24:51
Speaker 6: Well, it was a single boat out there at the time,
24:55
Speaker 6: so there was no chase, but which I will say,
24:57
Speaker 6: it is not uncommon for that industry, you know, to
25:01
Speaker 6: have just a single pair of sail boat operating out there.
25:05
Speaker 6: There's nothing in the reports or interviews I've seen so
25:08
Speaker 6: far to say yes that he did call Channel sixteen
25:13
Speaker 6: on his marine radio. But you know, he could have
25:16
Speaker 6: been in the throes of just trying to deal with
25:19
Speaker 6: this why you know, cutting the line, steering the boat,
25:24
Speaker 6: doing all of these things, watching these people out there.
25:27
Speaker 6: So he may not have had time because you know,
25:30
Speaker 6: we act like this went on for how far this
25:32
Speaker 6: could have been. All of this could have happened within
25:34
Speaker 6: what five to ten minutes very quickly, you know, given
25:37
Speaker 6: the wind speed given how far they were getting carried
25:39
Speaker 6: across the water, so it wasn't like this was, you know,
25:43
Speaker 6: even longer than the segment we're doing right now. All
25:46
Speaker 6: of this could have happened in moments.
25:48
Speaker 1: Well, I know that you said it's common that it
25:50
Speaker 1: is done, that there's not a chase boat, but just
25:56
Speaker 1: because it is done doesn't mean it should be done.
26:01
Speaker 1: And I'm just trying to figure out. I mean, I've
26:03
Speaker 1: taken a lot of looks at this bridge. It's an
26:06
Speaker 1: abandoned bridge, and I would think that you would try
26:11
Speaker 1: to stay away from big cement bridges when you go parasailing.
26:15
Speaker 6: Well, and maybe that's the will of our state legislature
26:18
Speaker 6: this time, to say maybe we need to push these
26:20
Speaker 6: boats further out where you're I don't know, eight ten miles.
26:25
Speaker 1: I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on a state legislature
26:28
Speaker 1: to do anything, but to me, it just makes common sense.
26:32
Speaker 1: I mean, Mark McCollough, why are we going to wait
26:36
Speaker 1: on the Florida state legislature to tell a boat operator
26:39
Speaker 1: what is safe and not safe? Because you'll be waiting
26:41
Speaker 1: till you're blue in the face. Hell will freeze over
26:44
Speaker 1: before you get a legislature to do anything. Half of
26:46
Speaker 1: them were probably making money off parasailing, so that is
26:49
Speaker 1: not going to happen anytime soon. So Mark, why would
26:52
Speaker 1: we Isn't it just common sense that you don't parasle
26:58
Speaker 1: near a big cement abandoned bridge.
27:01
Speaker 7: Yeah, let's start back with the legislature, because I was
27:04
Speaker 7: the one who originally pushed the legislation to do regulations.
27:08
Speaker 7: But I had it.
27:09
Speaker 12: It was so strict.
27:10
Speaker 7: I actually had a distance based on the height of
27:13
Speaker 7: the toe, and they just ignored it because the parasl
27:16
Speaker 7: operators sort of started lobbying against what I had tried
27:20
Speaker 7: to push is very strict regulations. And yeah, you're right,
27:25
Speaker 7: it was. You're to know they're not going to do anything.
27:29
Speaker 7: There's too much responsibility.
27:30
Speaker 1: I mean, I only say that because I was a
27:32
Speaker 1: lobbyist briefly for the district attorney at the Georgia State Assembly.
27:36
Speaker 1: I did that I think two sessions, and I begged,
27:39
Speaker 1: I said, please let me try murders and get me
27:43
Speaker 1: out of politics, and it was anti crime issues, but
27:47
Speaker 1: you know, they didn't want to hear about any of that.
27:50
Speaker 1: Let me go to our guest joining us, doctor Tim Gallagher,
27:53
Speaker 1: what were the injuries that this young mom suffered that
27:57
Speaker 1: led to her death.
27:58
Speaker 8: Most likely impact injuries, but we cannot rule out that
28:03
Speaker 8: the woman died from drowning. And then we also have
28:07
Speaker 8: to add in and you may not like it, but
28:10
Speaker 8: is it a natural cause when you have a medical event?
28:13
Speaker 8: You know, before the impact in the water and before
28:16
Speaker 8: she drowned, she.
28:17
Speaker 1: Ran into the bridge. She slam into a cement bridge.
28:22
Speaker 1: She's dead. She either died from force injuries. And I'm
28:26
Speaker 1: just a jd I don't even know what I'm saying,
28:28
Speaker 1: but I know she either died from blunt force trauma
28:32
Speaker 1: right there with her her son and her nephew watching,
28:35
Speaker 1: or she got hit and went into the water and
28:39
Speaker 1: that sail, that tether dragged her through the water and
28:44
Speaker 1: it drowned her. It's one of those two things.
28:46
Speaker 8: Well, absolutely, that's your impression, but we have to look
28:49
Speaker 8: at it from a scientific point, you know, and we
28:51
Speaker 8: have to also include natural disease.
28:53
Speaker 3: In with our.
28:57
Speaker 1: She fell down the steps, well, I mean.
29:00
Speaker 6: It's a low possibility, but we do have to include it.
29:02
Speaker 8: And that's just how that's how the science is.
29:18
Speaker 1: Prime stories with Nancy Grace. The husband has now filed
29:23
Speaker 1: a lawsuit against the captain, his colleague, the boat company,
29:28
Speaker 1: and the marina, claiming they didn't even check weather reports
29:32
Speaker 1: and those reports would have prevented them from selling that
29:36
Speaker 1: The captain did not give them safety equipment, including life jackets.
29:40
Speaker 1: Oh dear Lord in Heaven, they were up in the
29:41
Speaker 1: air without life jackets and did not properly bring down
29:45
Speaker 1: the parasl after losing control. There were so many opportunities
29:50
Speaker 1: to stop this tragedy of a little boy losing his
29:54
Speaker 1: mom forever, but it seems to be there was one
29:57
Speaker 1: failure after the next after the next. The dad now
30:01
Speaker 1: advising families taking vacations this year to take precautions and
30:07
Speaker 1: ask adventurers and ask questions when you go on so
30:10
Speaker 1: called port adventures. Don't just rely on what these people
30:16
Speaker 1: are telling you. You don't know them and they just
30:18
Speaker 1: want to make some money off you. They're not worried
30:21
Speaker 1: about you or your children. So mart McCollough, let me
30:24
Speaker 1: understand something. Why would he cut the cord? How would
30:29
Speaker 1: that possibly help anything?
30:31
Speaker 7: Well, we don't know the circumstances, but that's not something
30:33
Speaker 7: I've ever trained anybody, and I'm not even sure any
30:36
Speaker 7: other operators ever trained someone to cut a tow line because.
30:40
Speaker 1: We totally give up control of the line.
30:42
Speaker 7: Yeah, when you cut the line, you lose control, and
30:44
Speaker 7: that's it. I mean, these boats are very strong, the
30:47
Speaker 7: line's very strong. Heck, to blow a hole in that
30:50
Speaker 7: parachute would take about an eighty mile an hour or
30:52
Speaker 7: one hundred mine hour win. So you've got a lot
30:55
Speaker 7: of things. The captain has a lot of things that
30:57
Speaker 7: they're at their resources. The fact that these newer vessels
31:01
Speaker 7: are much bigger, stronger, heavier, and you know, the fact
31:05
Speaker 7: that you'd cut a toe line, I don't care if
31:08
Speaker 7: you're being dragged backwards or you know, panicking because maybe
31:12
Speaker 7: there's water on coming in over the back end of
31:14
Speaker 7: the boat. There's just no circumstances in which someone would
31:18
Speaker 7: cut a line that.
31:19
Speaker 6: I know of.
31:20
Speaker 1: Well, he did it. And when you cut the line,
31:23
Speaker 1: what happens then, Martin McCall, once you cut that line, well.
31:27
Speaker 7: Then now you've got no control. Now the wind takes over.
31:30
Speaker 7: And as what happened is that they probably glided for
31:34
Speaker 7: quite a way before they hit the water. And we
31:37
Speaker 7: don't know how long they were in the water being
31:39
Speaker 7: dragged backwards, but I can tell you In past cases
31:42
Speaker 7: that I've investigated where we've had water landing, nine times
31:47
Speaker 7: out of ten the person drowns because that water just
31:50
Speaker 7: covers you and you can hardly breathe it. Like I said,
31:52
Speaker 7: it's like being waterboarded. You can't breathe. And as the
31:57
Speaker 7: doctor said, is that, Yeah, she could have had a
32:00
Speaker 7: where you know that maybe she couldn't catch her wind
32:03
Speaker 7: or catch you, or she was you know, scared, panic whatever.
32:06
Speaker 1: You mean, drowned. Yeah, I don't know that. I would
32:09
Speaker 1: blame her and her fake asthma. You guys have cooked
32:12
Speaker 1: up as to white. I mean, think of somebody skiing
32:15
Speaker 1: face down being pulled through the water behind a speedboat.
32:20
Speaker 1: There's no way you can breathe the water at that
32:23
Speaker 1: velocity being pumped right into your face. And here's here's
32:28
Speaker 1: the kicker. Not the first time this has happened, as
32:31
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, right there in Florida. Take a
32:34
Speaker 1: listen at our cut thirteen our friend Rob Nelson at ABC.
32:37
Speaker 1: It's the terrifying moment caught on camera.
32:40
Speaker 15: Watch as a power sail containing two riders breaks loose
32:44
Speaker 15: from the boat leading it and slams into two nearby
32:46
Speaker 15: condominiums in Panama Beach, Florida, all before crashing into a
32:54
Speaker 15: parking lot full of cars.
32:55
Speaker 12: We are at the Commodore and two pails.
33:00
Speaker 1: This morning.
33:01
Speaker 15: Two seventeen year old Indiana girls, Alexis Fairrenschild in Sydney
33:05
Speaker 15: Good remain in critical condition at an area hospital. Initial
33:08
Speaker 15: reports from investigators say that on Monday, an afternoon storm
33:12
Speaker 15: developed with strong winds, and that these winds kept the
33:15
Speaker 15: shoot aloft and several attempts to winch the riders back
33:18
Speaker 15: onto the vessel failed. The company who ran the outing,
33:22
Speaker 15: Aquatic Adventures, is declining to come in. The very popular
33:25
Speaker 15: vacation sport, is an industry with very little regulation. Just
33:29
Speaker 15: this May, Fara legislators failed to pass a bill that
33:32
Speaker 15: would have put new safety standards in place. One of
33:35
Speaker 15: the biggest opponents Aquatic Adventures, the owner of the boat
33:38
Speaker 15: involved in this incident.
33:40
Speaker 1: That has also happened in Florida with two teen girls.
33:43
Speaker 1: I've got so many similar transactions here where the same
33:48
Speaker 1: thing happens. Parasl becomes unhooked, flies untethered for forty five minutes.
33:53
Speaker 1: It goes on and on and on. Fifteen year old
33:56
Speaker 1: Amber May White dies when wind gus snaps the line
34:00
Speaker 1: sailing with sister. I mean, there's so many of these incidents,
34:06
Speaker 1: but what it boils down to you writing here, doctor
34:09
Speaker 1: Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist out of Atlanta, what happens when
34:15
Speaker 1: a child this young nine loses their mother?
34:20
Speaker 12: Nancy. There's a wonderful study that was published in twenty
34:25
Speaker 12: eighteen from the American Journal of Psychiatry. It was a
34:28
Speaker 12: longitudinal study that looked at children who had.
34:31
Speaker 6: Lost their parents or a mother.
34:35
Speaker 12: From all different kinds of death, suicide, trauma, natural causes.
34:42
Speaker 12: During the first two years after a child loses a parent,
34:47
Speaker 12: they are at a very high risk of suffering from depression.
34:52
Speaker 12: So it's important for whoever the surviving parent is to
34:56
Speaker 12: be looking out for this and treat it because is
35:00
Speaker 12: actually what they also found in this study is that
35:05
Speaker 12: this affects the child socially and mentally for years into
35:10
Speaker 12: their life. But the first thing they have to look for,
35:13
Speaker 12: the first thing they need to be looking for in
35:15
Speaker 12: these children who have lost a parent are signs and
35:19
Speaker 12: symptoms of depression in that first two years, and they
35:22
Speaker 12: need to jump on it and treat it and not
35:25
Speaker 12: wish it away.
35:27
Speaker 1: Robert Crispin joining me, Crispin Special Investigations also joining us
35:32
Speaker 1: from Florida along with Michael Winkleman, maritime lawyer in Florida.
35:37
Speaker 1: You know, Crispin, I think when people go on vacation,
35:40
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you see this a lot in Florida,
35:43
Speaker 1: your defenses are lowered. You don't think you're going to
35:47
Speaker 1: have a crash when you rent that mopad or that
35:50
Speaker 1: bird or that paarasling adventure or scuba or whatever is
35:55
Speaker 1: you're doing. There's so many incidents like that happening at
35:59
Speaker 1: vacation spots. I it's you know, I was just down
36:02
Speaker 1: in Florida and we went to Gator Land or Gator
36:05
Speaker 1: World and they had a zip line over the gators.
36:08
Speaker 1: So what I'm saying is these people probably had no
36:11
Speaker 1: idea how dangerous this really was.
36:13
Speaker 11: Listen, Nancy, this all comes down to one person, and
36:16
Speaker 11: in every single one of these events that we have
36:18
Speaker 11: spoken about comes back to one person, the captain.
36:21
Speaker 6: The captain is ultimately.
36:22
Speaker 11: Responsible for who's on his vessel or who is associated
36:26
Speaker 11: with his vessel, whether you're parasailing, you're diving, whatever you're doing,
36:30
Speaker 11: that captain is one hundred percent responsible in each of
36:33
Speaker 11: these situations. The captain made a poor decision, absolutely made
36:38
Speaker 11: a poor decision. Those boats never should have been out
36:40
Speaker 11: in that wind, those kids that got detached from their tethers,
36:44
Speaker 11: and the other situations we talked about, that's an equipment failure.
36:47
Speaker 11: I guarantee you in those investigations, you're going to find
36:52
Speaker 11: faulty equipment. I guarantee you in this particular situation, and
36:56
Speaker 11: I vote in South Florida every weekend.
36:59
Speaker 6: It's a epic.
37:00
Speaker 11: Failure on the captain's part, and who he or his
37:05
Speaker 11: observer instructed to cut that line was the ultimate demise
37:10
Speaker 11: of those three people.
37:12
Speaker 1: I agree or disagree with Michael winklman Oh.
37:14
Speaker 9: I completely agree with everything you said, in particular, Nancy
37:17
Speaker 9: that I think when people go on these vacations they
37:20
Speaker 9: do let their guard down. Then you have these inherently
37:22
Speaker 9: dangerous activities that are putting families at risk and not
37:25
Speaker 9: enough and done to make them safe. I think, even
37:28
Speaker 9: before you get the captain operation and blaming them, it
37:31
Speaker 9: is an issue of regulation, and I think regulation has
37:34
Speaker 9: become such a political hot button issue. But here let's
37:37
Speaker 9: all take a little spoonful of common sense. We want
37:40
Speaker 9: to regulate parasol operators so that they can do this safely,
37:44
Speaker 9: so that we're not on this show talking about terrible
37:46
Speaker 9: strategies like this. This is where common spense regulation needs
37:50
Speaker 9: to come into play, Nancy.
37:51
Speaker 11: The beauty of all this is the captain always has
37:54
Speaker 11: the right to say no, we're not going, just like
37:56
Speaker 11: you're pilots in bad weather when you sit on the
37:59
Speaker 11: runway and everyone on that place is upset that that
38:00
Speaker 11: thing's not taken off. You know why because that guy
38:02
Speaker 11: in the left seat, that captain, he said no, it's no,
38:06
Speaker 11: and a lot of these should have been.
38:09
Speaker 1: Ann We now learn the husband of a mommy who
38:13
Speaker 1: dies parasailing with her son and nephew literally clung to
38:19
Speaker 1: the boat captain's leg, begging him not to cut the
38:23
Speaker 1: mommy and the sun free. But he did. Now mommy's dead.
38:29
Speaker 1: Where does it stand right now? Take a listen to this,
38:32
Speaker 1: our friends at CBS.
38:33
Speaker 3: I can't help but think that if the people we
38:37
Speaker 3: trusted from the parasaling company and the captain Pips Marina
38:42
Speaker 3: had done their jobs, my wife would still be with
38:46
Speaker 3: us today.
38:47
Speaker 16: This family, they previously filed a lawsuit against the parasailing company.
38:51
Speaker 16: This latest and second lawsuit is against the Captain, the
38:54
Speaker 16: Mate and Captain Pips Marina and Resort. That's where the
38:57
Speaker 16: parasale company operated from. Captain of the Vote was arrested
39:02
Speaker 16: and charged with manslaughter in September.
39:05
Speaker 1: We wait as just as sun falls. Goodbye friend,