Diver suffered heart attack

New York State Police have closed their investigation of the death of a Kingston diver, after a coroner found that Michael K. Roberts suffered a heart attack.

An experienced scuba diver with underwater rescue training credentials, Roberts was with two other men about 65 metres under the St. Lawrence River exploring a shipwreck off Wellesley Island, N.Y., when disaster struck on Wednesday.

Within an hour, he was pronounced dead at River Hospital in Alexandria Bay, N.Y.

“He was a great kid,” said his mother, Shirley Roberts, who had come from St. Catharines with her husband, Bill, to make funeral arrangements for their 39-year-old son.

“He was into hunting and fishing. Diving was his passion,” she said. “He was a strong technical diver. He was also a rescue diver.”

Roberts had been a federal prison guard for 15 years and was president of the union local at Kingston Penitentiary. The Correctional Service Canada flag was flying at half-mast over the facility Friday.

Roberts had just become engaged four weeks ago to Katrina Ivatt.

Blair Mott of Komoka, Ont., was one of the two divers with Roberts on the Jodrey wreck when things went wrong.

Mott made the decision to return quickly to the surface with Roberts — risking decompression sickness — when it became apparent his fellow diver was in trouble.

The third diver, Christopher Monk of Aurora, took the ascent more slowly.

U.S. Coast Guard officials said Monk surfaced about a half hour after Roberts and Mott.

Roberts was administered CPR and taken by boat to hospital in Alexandria Bay where he was pronounced dead.

Mott, because of the quick ascent, was taken to the same hospital and then transferred to a Syracuse facility where he was supposed to undergo decompression treatment. To the surprise of staff there, he didn’t have to be put in the hyperbaric chamber.

On Friday, he was back at work.

Mott said Monk had arranged the dive for the two of them.

Roberts joined in because he knew the owner of the charter company, Rockport Dive Centre, on the Ontario side of the St. Lawrence.

The three of them had arranged to act as each other’s “buddies” should anyone run into trouble while exploring the Jodrey.

Even though New York State Police announced they were closing the file on the case, Mott was hesitant Friday to provide details of what happened underwater.

He has been asked to fill out reports and to speak to officials with the state police, Transport Canada’s marine division and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Transport Canada confirmed it is “investigating the regulatory compliance of the vessel that transported the divers to the site.”

An e-mailed response to Whig-Standard questions stres – sed that the ministry does not regulate diving activities and its role “is limited to regulating the vessel.”

Mott, who has dived on the Jodrey before, said he’s been busy answering official questions.

“I’ve never been involved in a fatality before,” he said.

He didn’t hesitate to talk about Roberts, with whom he had gone diving on one other occasion.

“He was a great guy,” said Mott, who has 12 years of scuba experience.

“The sad thing is this is a guy I really enjoyed being on the boat with. I couldn’t have asked for a happier dude to be on a boat with.”

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