JUNO BEACH, Fla. — A father died Wednesday during a diving excursion with his 14-year-old son off the coast of Juno Beach, authorities said.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said Jupiter police and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers responded to the area of Captain Mike's reef, located about 6 miles offshore of Juno Beach, at about 10 a.m. after getting a report about a missing diver.
The sheriff's office said the Republic IV Dive Charter out of the Jupiter Dive Center went out for a dive tour at 9 a.m.
At about 9:50 a.m., the divers went into the water, and just minutes later, a 14-year-old boy came up yelling for help.
The sheriff's office said the teen told the captain and crew that his father, Kenneth Lowery, was dead at the bottom of the ocean, saying Lowery didn't have his regulator in and was unresponsive.
"My grandson, they went out, I guess, on a boat," Lowery's mother-in-law told WPTV. "They went down. He knew there (were) problems and he tried to get his dad back up, so his dad pushed him up towards the top and (my grandson) came up as fast as he could, and when he came up, he looked back and his dad wasn't there."
Following an extensive search, Lowery's body was discovered in the ocean at about 11:30 a.m.