Spokane Diver Vanishes Into Columbia River Woman Presumed Dead After Disappearing Near Boat Basin

A rescue diver from Spokane was missing and presumed drowned on a recreational dive with a friend.

Jodi L. Provo, 35, vanished Saturday after swimming around a train bridge piling near the Pasco boat basin in the Columbia River, said Neil Hines, director of the Columbia Basin Dive Rescue.

Thirteen divers searched Saturday and about 30 people resumed the effort Sunday morning. The search was suspended for the night about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, said Dawn White of Columbia Basin.

Divers will continue looking for Provo at 4 p.m. today after the volunteer divers leave work, White said.

Hines said Provo, a single mother with a 15-year-old daughter, was swimming underwater with Shane Combs when she noticed a hole in her drysuit. As they headed ashore from the second oval concrete piling, Combs looked behind him, but Provo had vanished.

“She was the most loving, caring person that you could ever meet. She had a heart of gold,” said Provo’s cousin, Kim Rousseau of Michigan. “I wish she never would have gotten into that diving.”

Tom Mattern, Spokane County search and rescue coordinator, said Provo joined the team as a volunteer 13 months ago, passed rescue-diving certification and most recently participated in a recovery attempt two weeks ago in the search for a drowned boater.