JUPITER, Fla. (WPTV) – A father from Texas died during a scuba diving accident in Florida, according to family and officials.
“He called his big brother and told him he was standing there and that he thought his daddy had drowned,” Kelly Bezayiff, Kenneth Lowery’s former mother-in-law, described.
She said she was in Texas when she got a phone call Wednesday that she’ll never forget.
“Then, I just started to get to Florida,” Bezayiff said.
The call was about Lowery.
She said since her grandson has been 8 years old, his father would take him on scuba diving trips to Florida.
This time, now-14-year-old David Lowery, or Xander as he’s known, is the only one returning to Texas alive.
“He, my grandson, they went out I guess on a boat. They went down. He knew there were problems and he tried to get his dad back up and he couldn’t get him back up,” Bezayiff said. “So, his dad pushed him up towards the top and Xander came up as fast as he could, and when he came up, he looked back and his dad wasn’t there.”
Authorities said the Republic IV charter, out of the Jupiter Dive Center, took the father and son on a tour around 9 a.m. that morning.
By 9:50 a.m., both divers went into the water. A few minutes later, authorities said Xander came up yelling for help.
Roughly ten minutes later, Jupiter police and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were in the area of Captain Mike’s Reef, which is about six miles off shore of Juno Beach, searching for Lowery.
Following an extensive search, Lowery’s body was discovered in the ocean.
An owner of the Republic IV charter said by phone he didn’t have anything to say about Wednesday’s dive or the death of Lowery.
Bezayiff said Lowery was a great father to his three kids and to Xander’s mother, who just died from cancer recently.
“He was phenomenal to my daughter as she was dying. He was there for her, even though they weren’t together anymore,” Bezayiff said. “I mean, he was just that type of guy.”
Bezayiff said the death of Xander’s father means her grandson has lost both of his parents within the span of three weeks.
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