Laurel Leigh Silver-Valker, 45, went missing off Catalina Island on December 29, 2015, during a lobster diving trip aboard the commercial vessel Sundiver Express. An experienced diver and near her 1,000th dive, Silver-Valker was diving solo in the Ship Rock area and gave a thumbs-up to the dive captain at about 9:35 a.m. from a depth of 15 to 20 feet. She was not wearing a buoyancy vest and was not listed on the boat’s official passenger roster that day.

The Sundiver Express left the site without realizing Silver-Valker was not back aboard; the crew only noticed she was missing after traveling about twenty minutes to the next dive location. The Coast Guard was notified around 12:00 p.m., roughly two and a half hours after she was last seen, and launched an extensive search and rescue operation. Silver-Valker was never found and is presumed deceased. The investigation found previous incidents of the company leaving divers behind; the vessel’s captain, Kyaa Heller, voluntarily surrendered her merchant mariner credential after a Coast Guard negligence complaint. Silver-Valker was a mother of two and a former special education teacher who had turned to scuba diving for chronic pain therapy.

Does anyone have information about Laurel’s last dive, the Sundiver Express’s operations that day, or knew Laurel and can share details that might help the case?