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A 73-year-old snorkeler has died after he was found passed out off Key Largo this week, according to local media.

The man, Dwaine David Anderson, of Crystal Falls, Michigan, was swimming on the Grecian Rocks reef off Key Largo Monday. Anderson was out with a commercial dive operation when he was found passed out, officials with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office told the Miami Herald.

The dive boat crew performed CPR as they raced back to shore. Anderson was transported to the Mariners Hospital in Tavernier where he was pronounced dead.

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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is conducting the search for a child who remains missing as of Tuesday after a boating accident in North Florida that killed three people, officials say.

The incident happened 8 p.m. Friday when an 18-foot vessel carrying eight people flipped. Three bodies, including one child, were recovered from the water. Emergency responders were called out to the scene after passersby reported seeing the overturned vessel with at least “four people on top … and an additional four people possibly underneath,” according to reporting from The Miami Herald.

No one involved in the incident was wearing a life jacket, officials with the U.S. Coast Guard told reporters.

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Card Sound Road, one of the only ways in and out of the Florida Keys, will have intermittent closures Thursday morning due to fast-moving brush fires, according to reporting from The Miami Herald.

Thursday marks the third day in which the road saw shut downs due to the wildfires as firefighters continue to battle the flames. The road will have these closures for fire mitigation and air water drops.

The 14,000-acre, South Florida wildfire broke out Tuesday afternoon in a largely rural area and, as of Thursday morning, was at least 20 percent contained, according to reporting from The Palm Beach Post.

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Two 16-year-olds who went missing Monday afternoon from the Cedar Key Fishing Pier north of Tampa were found on an oyster reef Tuesday morning.

The girls were found 14 miles from the pier where they launched their board. Officials say it was a combination of strong winds and waves that pushed the two out to sea. The two were reported missing by family and multiple agencies, who were out searching for them into the night. Several volunteer boaters were also out on the water looking for the girls.

Lt. Scott Tummond with the Levy County Sheriff’s Office told reporter with ABC news that the number of first responders they had out searching was “astounding.”

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The Monroe County State Attorney’s Office is seeking the death penalty for a Florida Keys man police accused of filming himself raping a child multiple times, according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

Micheal John Demerjian, 36, of Big Pine Key, in the Lower Keys, was in custody on unrelated charges on Jan. 17 when his phone was found by someone who purchased his car. On the phone, over 70 images and videos of the child, who is under 12 years old, were found. The images were reported to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

The Key West Injury Lawyer Blog will not be publishing the age of the child or Demerjian’s connection to the minor to protect their identity.

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A Marion County diving boat captain was found guilty this week of seaman’s manslaughter in the death of a diver who tragically drowned during a propeller malfunction in March 2020.

A federal jury found Dustin Sean McCabe, 49, of Ocala, Florida, guilty this week on the seaman’s manslaughter charges as well as for lying to the Coast Guard and committing Covid-19 relief fraud, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Seaman’s manslaughter is a second-degree felony in Florida. Mcabe could face up to 10 years in prison for the seaman’s manslaughter charges, up to five years for lying to the coast guard and up to 20 years for the wire fraud.

McCabe is set to be sentenced June 12 before U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon.

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A transportation device that Leesfield & Partners’ Founder and Managing Partner, Ira Leesfield, has been warning communities about may have been responsible for a Key West fire, according to the city’s Fire Marshal.

Key West Fire Marshal Jason Barroso reminded the community in the Keys Weekly, a weekly newspaper, to be wary of lithium-ion batteries. His reminder comes after an initial assessment showed a local fire may have been caused by an e-bike battery.

The fire happened on Patricia Street on Feb. 25 and had fully engulfed a garage, causing significant damage. Thankfully, no injuries were reported but Barroso wanted to remind the community to follow manufacturer’s safety instructions for charging and storing of e-bikes.

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Three people were airlifted to the hospital following a head-on crash on the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys Monday afternoon, according to reporting from local media.

The crash happened around 2 p.m. between a GMC Denali pickup truck and a BMW SUV. Photos from the Miami Herald show the mangled aftermath of the collision and first responders scrambling around the BMW, the front of both vehicles appeared to be crushed in photos.

The pickup was heading south and turned into the northbound lane and struck the BMW, officials with the Florida Highway Patrol told reporters. Officials said they did not know why the truck turned into the northbound lane.

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A circuit court judge ordered George Pino, the 54-year-old Doral real estate broker facing vessel homicide charges related to the 2022 boat crash that killed an Our Lady of Lourdes Academy student, to no longer contact the teen’s parents during trial.

Circuit Court Judge Marisa Tinkler Mendez granted the order Wednesday, barring Pino from contacting the family of 17-year-old Luciana Fernandez via a third-party, social media, electronically or in person for the remainder of the trial. The text message was reportedly sent last week from Pino to the girl’s parents that “appealed to both families’ Catholic faith,” according to reporting from the Miami Herald.

While Tinkler Mendez said in court she did not believe the message was sent with “intentional malfeasance,” prosecutors said it could be interpreted as intimidation or witness tampering.

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Two boaters and their dog were left clinging to the hull of their sinking boat in the St. Augustine Inlet after rough waters caused the vessel to flip, according to authorities.

“They had life jackets onboard, but the boat flipped so fast they couldn’t get to them in time,” officials from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office told reporter with the Miami Herald about the daring, Feb. 15 rescue. “The female onboard was able to call 911. It [took] about 10 to 15 minutes for us to locate them.”

The couple was spotted around 3 p.m. and videos of their harrowing ordeal show the boat almost completely submerged at some points.

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