Michael Elkins was a 35-year-old diver last seen January 12, 1998, during a deep-sea expedition near Jupiter, Florida. He was part of a group diving to a sunken barge about two miles offshore and began to struggle with buoyancy control at roughly 245 feet. Fellow divers attempted to help, but Elkins did not surface and has not been seen since.

A West Palm Beach police detective, John Claypool, also disappeared during the same dive. Search efforts by local authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard failed to locate either man. Elkins was wearing a blue hoodie, a green wetsuit, and was using a yellow travel tank plus green decompression tanks when he vanished. Investigators presume he lost his life during the expedition, though no body was recovered and the case remains open with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Did anyone dive on that barge or the area off Jupiter in January 1998 and see anything that could help investigators?