Three Factors Tied To Diver’s Death

Thu., Sept. 18, 1997

Associated Press

A lack of air, bulky gloves and a hidden emergency cord most likely contributed to the death of a Spokane woman as she was scuba diving near the bottom of the Columbia River, the Franklin County coroner says.

Jody Provo disappeared Sept. 6 while diving near pilings of a railroad bridge. What Provo believed was a hole in the knee of her diving suit turned out to be an opening in the suit’s seal behind her neck, coroner Dan Blasdel said Tuesday. “Water was coming in her back and soaking down,” he said. “We think that’s why she believed she had a hole.”

Provo apparently signaled to her diving partner, Shane Combs, about a hole in her suit, and they headed to the surface separately. When he looked back, she was gone.

Her body was discovered Saturday and an autopsy concluded Provo drowned. Provo was the single mother of a 15-year-old girl.

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