Two Keys dive boat owners disappeared after a woman died 11 years ago. They’ve returned
Eleven years ago, a woman on a dive boat was killed when a 300-pound bench detached and pinned her under the hard deck as the vessel sank in rough seas.
After her death, two dive shop operators that owned the boat packed up and left the country. They were on the run for more than a decade.
Their freedom is over.
Late last week, they pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in South Florida federal court. Last year, Spanish authorities arrested British couple Christopher Jones, 57, and Alison Gracey, 54. They were brought to the United States in January.
Their sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 18 in Key West federal court. Each faces up to eight years in prison. Defense attorney Adam Goodman did not return a call from the Miami Herald.
A grand jury originally indicted them in October 2012, almost a year after the death of Aimee Rhoads, a 36-year-old mother of a 3-year-old child, and a mental health counselor from Federal Way, Washington.
Jones and Gracey skipped town shortly after Rhoads died. Officials in the Caribbean island of St. Maarten arrested them in June 2015, but they fled that country while out on bond, a federal law enforcement source with knowledge of the case said.
“The same thing happened in France after St. Maarten,” the official said.
The two were not on the boat during the tragedy. They weren’t even in the country. After the sinking, they returned to the Keys, packed up their stuff and disappeared, according to the investigation.
Jones and Gracey opened the Key Largo Scuba Shack out of a bayside motel in mid-2010.
There were problems from the start.
Their 25-foot boat, the Get Wet, had major structural issues, and Coast Guard inspectors had told Jones and Gracey that it was in need of repairs, including securing the center engine bench cover that ended up trapping Rhoads, to the deck, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The Coast Guard also told them the bulkhead areas of the boat were not watertight. Their employees also repeatedly told them the Get Wet had dangerous flooding issues, the deck plates were barely attached and the engine bench cover “would rock back and forth,” federal prosecutors said.
During a previous trip out to sea, with Gracy serving as dive master, the vessel almost sank, prosecutors said.
On Dec. 18, 2011, Rhoads was one of six passengers aboard the Get Wet as it made its way toward Molasses Reef, a protected coral reef within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The site is a Keys treasure, popular with snorkelers and divers because its typically crystal clear waters are teeming with sea life thanks to its protected status.
The day started out picture perfect, with calm seas and winds. Conditions deteriorated rapidly. The waves kicked up and the water became choppy. The Get Wet crew began to get its customers back on board.
But then the crew noticed the bilge pump failed and the Get Wet was quickly taking on water. It flooded the exposed hatches at the stern of the boat.
“The exposed hatches combined with weather conditions allowed the vessel to take on a lot of water very fast,” a Coast Guard investigator told the Miami Herald at the time. According to court documents, the 19-year-old captain of the boat ordered all of the passengers under the bimini top in the front of the vessel.
When the boat started to move, the water shifted and the boat began to sink, stern first. The vessel rolled violently, capsized and sank 30 feet to the bottom of the ocean. Four passengers and two crew members were unharmed. But Rhoads and another passenger, Amit Rampurkari, a 30-year-old man from New York, were trapped in the Get Wet’s forward section.
Another dive boat arrived to offer assistance. Divers rescued Rampurkari, who was injured and treated at a hospital. He survived.
Rescuing Rhoads turned out to be more difficult because the divers could not free her legs from the heavy bench. After 15 minutes, divers surfaced with Rhoads. It was too late.
“Despite receiving cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, Aimee Rhoads was pronounced dead upon arrival to shore,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Juan Gonzalez wrote in a May 9, 2022, statement. “A subsequent autopsy revealed the cause of her death as saltwater drowning.”
