Newly certified diver dies in Upper Keys

A Maryland woman newly certified in scuba died after surfacing from a dive Sunday off Key Largo.

Nancy Kreiter, 50, of Bel Air, Md., was on a Florida Keys vacation during which all four family members completed dive-certification training, husband David Clifford told Monroe County Sheriff's Office officers.

“They all took scuba diving lessons together and became certified just two days prior to her death,” said Deputy Becky Herrin, agency information officer.

Kreiter yearned to become a diver for a decade, so the couple and their two children “traveled to the Keys to fulfill that dream,” Herrin said.

Kreiter and her son surfaced after a dive at the Benwood Wreck and swam back to the boat. Witnesses told Deputy Kyle Page that “she took off her fins and began climbing onto the boat...On the boat's ladder, Kreiter reportedly collapsed and stopped breathing.”

Crew aboard the commercial dive boat, based at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. They also hailed a nearby dive boat, smaller and faster, to race Kreiter to shore. The Pennekamp-based boat also still had divers in the water.

An ambulance met the incoming dive boat at the Port Largo Homeowners Park on Marina Avenue, but Kreiter soon was pronounced dead.

An autopsy will be performed to determine cause of death. Her dive gear was taken for inspection.

Kreiter was the 10th person to die on a Keys scuba trip in 2007.

Three people died while freediving, and a fourth snorkeler was killed when hit by a boat.

The Benwood Wreck is relatively shallow, about 25 to 45 feet, compared with wrecks like the Duane or Spiegel Grove, which are located in water deeper than 100 feet.

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