Italian Authorities Seize Maldives Divers Devices in Rome Probe
Italian investigators have seized the phones, computers, tablets, USB drives and hard drive belonging to the five maldives divers who died inside a Vaavu Atoll cave on 14 May. The equipment could help prosecutors in Rome reconstruct what happened beneath the water in the Maldives, where the divers failed to surface after a dive.
Rome Seizure and Malé Custody
The Genoa Flying Squad took the devices and personal equipment after Stefano Vanin returned them to Italy. Italian authorities have also requested access to GoPro cameras, dive computers and other equipment recovered from the bodies, while that material remains held by investigators in Malé.
Italian prosecutors in Rome began a culpable homicide investigation after the deaths in the cave, which local reports call Devana Kandu or Dhekunu Kandu. The devices may provide depth, timing, gas usage and possible video footage from the dive, details that can help reconstruct the final minutes underwater.
Five Divers and a Rescue Death
Monica Montefalcone, Giorgia Sommacal, Muriel Oddenino, Federico Gualtieri and Gianluca Benedetti were reported missing on 14 May after failing to surface. Benedetti’s body was recovered the same day, and Staff Sergeant Mohamed Mahudhee of the Maldives National Defence Force died during the initial search.
Finnish cave specialists Sami Paakkarinen, Patrik Grönqvist and Jenni Westerlund recovered the rest of the missing dive team on 18 May and over the next two days. Vanin, an associate professor of zoology at the University of Genoa, was on the same liveaboard trip and returned the victims’ equipment to Italy.
Cave Theory in the Maldives
The main theory reported is that the divers deliberately entered the cave and became trapped after mistaking a dead-end tunnel for the exit. Alfonso Bolognini proposed a Venturi effect theory based on sketches of the cave’s entrance, but Paakkarinen said he thought it unlikely that the divers entered accidentally.
“It’s a huge cave,” Paakkarinen said in an interview with Corriere della Sera, adding, “and besides, in the Maldives, the sun shines up to, I think, 100 metres deep.” He also said: “So at 60 metres it’s still daylight, and when you enter a cave, you know it because it gets dark. You don’t risk accidentally entering a cave.”
The seized devices now sit at the center of the Rome inquiry, because they could show whether the dive followed the profile investigators expect and whether the team entered the cave on purpose. The next step is access to the GoPro cameras, dive computers and other recovered equipment held in Malé, where those records may sharpen the account of how five divers ended up trapped in the Vaavu Atoll cave.
