By Brandi Watters
The Herald Bulletin
MIDDLETOWN, Ind. — Trapped inside a vehicle submerged under the murky green waters of a small country pond, three mannequins were strapped in by safety belts, having suffered various deadly wounds.
The driver seemed to have died from a suicidal drowning, but his passenger, a female mannequin, had been shot once in the head.
The passenger in the back seat suffered decapitation, mostly because organizers couldn’t find a head for the dummy in time for Monday’s exercise.
The scene was meticulously constructed on Monday so that when six divers with the Anderson Fire Department entered the water for a recovery exercise Monday evening, they had some police work to do.
Shotgun shell casings were scattered throughout the sunken vehicle, a mid-1980s white Chevrolet Blazer.
Pill bottles for narcotics were also planted inside the vehicle, giving investigators a clue into the motives of the suicidal and ultimately homicidal driver.
Although organizers took pleasure in sinking an SUV into the waters of a secluded country pond and creating a gunshot wound for the murdered mannequin, the event was a serious one.
By acting out a scenario similar to those encountered by recovery divers in real life, the exercise was meant to prepare them for emergencies.
Dick Schwalm is a diving instructor who oversaw the recovery exercise.
“It’s gonna be a crime scene,” he said as divers entered the water.
Middletown property owners David and Jeanie Real allowed Schwalm and his divers to use their property for dive exercises for the past five years, but this was the first time David Real was asked to push an SUV into his backyard pond.
Real admitted that he enjoyed plunging to vehicle into the waters and watched with excitement as divers tried to find the sunken vessel.
Over the years, his grandchildren have watched as divers combed their backyard pond for practice exercises. Two of his grandchildren now admit that they want to become divers.
A small crowd gathered at the banks of the Real family pond to watch divers disappear beneath the surface.
The object for divers, according to Schwalm, was to locate the vehicle, perform a 360-degree assessment of the situation, studying all of the vehicles features, including its license plate.
Once complete, divers began the work of bringing the vehicle to the surface.
This is done with air, Schwalm said.
Using lift bags, laundry-basket sized air tight sacks, divers pump air from air tanks into the bags until the bags are ready to float to the top. The bags are precisely attached to the bumpers of the vehicle in order to help it float to the surface.
Divers were under strict instructions not to open any of the vehicle’s doors, he said, because this would contaminate the evidence inside the watery crime scene.
Anderson firefighter and diver of three years Todd Cawthorn was most excited about learning how to lift the vehicle to the surface and preserve evidence.
He was joined in his dive by AFD Captain Todd Jordan, firefighter Mike Wallace and firefighter Brent Holland, among others.
The three men have a combined 47 years of experience in diving.
Over the years, tactics learned at recovery exercises like the one held Monday in Middletown have been employed by firefighters, Jordan said.
In his 23 years of diving and 19 years with the Anderson Fire Department, Jordan has had to dive in some sort of recovery emergency 10 times.
By the time divers arrive at the scene of an accident, Schwalm said, the victim has expired. “It’s not going to be a rescue. It’s going to be a recovery.”
Copyright 2009