Authorities said Friday they have identified 23 of the 33 bodies recovered from the Conception dive boat disaster, and released the names of those whose families have been notified.
As of Friday afternoon, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department released the following 22 names of victims:
» Carol Diana Adami, 60, of Santa Cruz.
» Neal Gustav Baltz, 42, of Phoenix, Arizona.
» Patricia Ann Beitzinger, 48, of Chandler, Arizona.
» Vaidehi Campbell, 41, of Felton.
» Kendra Chan, 26, of Oxnard.
» Raymond “Scott” Chan, 59, of Los Altos.
» Justin Carroll Dignam, 58, of Anaheim.
» Andrew Fritz, 40, of Sacramento.
» Daniel Garcia, 46, of Berkeley.
» Marybeth Guiney, 51, of Santa Monica.
» Yulia Krashennaya, 40, of Berkeley.
» Alexandra “Allie” Kurtz, 26, of Santa Barbara.
» Charles McIlvain, 44, of Santa Monica
» Caroline McLaughlin, 35, of Oakland.
» Angela Rose Quitasol, 28, of Stockton.
» Evan Michel Quitasol, 37, of Stockton.
» Michael Quitasol, 62, of Stockton.
» Nicole Storm Quitasol, 31, of Imperial Beach.
» Steven Salika, 55, of Santa Cruz.
» Tia Salika-Adamic, 17, of Santa Cruz.
» Ted Strom, 62, of Germantown, Tennessee.
» Wei Tan, 26, of Goleta.
“This list is representative of the diverse makeup of the passengers and crew who were aboard the Conception on that fateful day,” Brown said in a statement Friday. “Their tragic loss has devastated countless family members, loved ones, friends and colleagues.”
The Conception was anchored Monday near Santa Cruz Island on the last day of a scuba diving trip when it caught fire and later sunk, killing 33 passengers and a crew member who were in the below-deck bunk area. Five crew members survived.
Brown said authorities continue to work “tenaciously” to recover all of the victims and determine the cause and manner of death, and the origin of the fire.
“The Sheriff’s Office will not be releasing the passenger manifest in whole out of respect for the families and to allow our investigators to make proper next of kin notifications,” he said.
Authorities will release additional names of victims after identifying the remains and notifying families, he added.
“Much of the information we are about to disclose and discuss can be painful and difficult for the family members of those who were lost in this terrible tragedy,” Brown said.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Office has received the bodies of 33 of the 34 dead, according to Brown. Dive teams continued to search Friday for the missing person.
“Due to the intense fire that occurred on the vessel,” he said. “All of the recovered remains have suffered varying degrees of fire damage, which required DNA analysis to confirm the identities of the victims.”
For the past several days, the coroner’s office and sheriff’s investigators were obtaining DNA swabs from family members to help identify the victims.
Brown called the task “monumental.”
ANDE Rapid DNA equipment has been used to identify Conception boat fire victims, which is the same technology used to identify Camp Fire victims, he noted.
Authorities had contacted family members from around the globe to verify the victims.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation made connections with relatives living in Singapore and another family flew into Santa Barbara from India, Brown said.
“We have connected with family members of all 34 victims,” Brown said, adding that the final person contacted was a mother living in Japan.
The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner is assisting the Coroner’s Bureau investigation.
Brown said toxicology tests and visual examinations were made for each victim, but there are no plans to conduct traditional autopsies.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office pathologist is “convinced” smoke inhalation is the preliminary cause of death, Brown said, and the extensive fire damage to their bodies occurred after they passed away.
There are multiple investigations into the incident, including the cause of death, the cause and origin of hte fire, and the safety standards of the Conception.
Responders are still searching for the last victim, and the salvage operation of the vessel is also underway. The wreckage has been stabilized and divers are able to search areas of the Conception that were previously inaccessible, Brown said.
Dive teams and marine units from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI and the National Park Service will be working in the waters Friday, Brown said.
Members from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives National Response Team are investigating the cause and origin of the fire, said Carlos Canino, special agent in charge of ATF’s Los Angeles field division.
Canino declined to answer questions from reporters.
“It’s too early to tell what the cause of the fire is,” Canino said. “In complex investigations like this where there’s a large loss of life, we take our time… we don’t put time limits on how long we will be here.”
Coast Guard Capt. Monica Rochester said salvage operations “can take some time.”
“It’s not a hurry up and lift and be placed on the barge,” Rochester said.
“It’s incremental efforts to make sure we try our best to keep the vessel intact.”
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
