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| Josh and his wife, Goi |
KARE has a mention on their Facebook site saying that Josh is an animal lover and has helped them many times.
"Family members are searching for answers after a former
soldier and Connecticut National Guardsman disappeared on a scuba diving trip
off the coast of Thailand.
Joshua Michael Devine, 36, vanished from a tour boat
Saturday morning in the Similan Islands. The Massachusetts native grew up in
Southington and enlisted in the Army after graduating from high school. He now
lives in Kuwait and loves spending time in the water.
"He had been looking forward to this trip for months.
He had gone on the trip before but didn't get to see the whale sharks, so he
was really looking forward to this," said his sister, Enfield resident
Jennifer Bakowski.
But something went very wrong.
"At midnight on the 11th, he set sail on the boat, and
at 4 a.m. the same day he was gone... just gone," Bakowski said.
Witnesses told the family Devine was aggressive and paranoid
on the boat, so two other divers brought him into a storage room in hopes of
calming him down. They left for 15 minutes, and when they returned he was gone.
They also said Devine had been drinking heavily with other
divers, a move Bakowski describes as uncharacteristic.
"He's a master diver, rescue diver, a dive
instructor," she explained. "He's just the most responsible person I
know, and for him to get drunk before going into the water, especially within a
couple hours..."
Devine's mother, too, said it's an unlikely story.
"This is not Josh, and it didn't happen from drinking
because he doesn't drink before a dive," said the missing man's mother,
Marie Major.
The family wonders why officials haven't acted more
aggressively to find Devine – and why it took so long for his fellow divers to
report him missing.
"At no point did they stop the boat to look for him.
They searched the boat up and down, and for whatever reason, waited six hours
before contacting the Marine police, and by that time, they were now six hours
from the location he went in the water," Bakowski said. "They
continued on with the rest of their vacation like nothing happened."
She wonders if maybe his disappearance wasn't an accident.
"I don't want to accuse people of being awful to
someone else, but it's the only thing in my mind that makes sense – that they
drugged him in some way," Bakowski said. "The way they portray
it, it doesn't happen, you know? The version of events just doesn't happen the
way they're saying."
Although Thailand is now celebrating a national holiday and
has called off its search, Major remains hopeful.
"I think he's sitting on an island somewhere, waiting
for us to come and get him and wondering what's taking so long," she said.
"He is the most intelligent person I know. He is the most resourceful
person I know."
Family members are spreading the word on Facebook about
Devine's disappearance and raising money for a trip to Thailand, where they plan to
restart the search for their loved one.
"Somebody help us get him home," Bakowski pleaded."
--- End ---
You can keep up with his story on the Facebook site set up for him: Bring Josh Home Safe (https://www.facebook.com/BringJoshuaHomeSafe)
Articles:
Articles:
Donate to help Josh’s family in their travel/search
efforts in Thailand: http://www.gofundme.com/rt25ze6
How worrying. I really hope this ends well.
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