Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Young Mom DEAD, 2 Little Boys in ICU after Vacay PARASAIL NIGHTMARE

Episode Date: June 6, 2022

An Illinois mom was killed and two children seriously injured while parasailing, after a storm blew in, affecting the stability of the boat towing the family. A preliminary incident report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission says boat captain Daniel Couch,49, cut the towing cable when the parasail “pegged” in a high gust of wind, threatening to drag his boat. This resulted in the parasail and the individuals being drug “through and across the surface of the water” and slammed into an abandoned Florida Keys bridge. Supraja Alaparthi, 33, was dead before another boat captain untangled her and the children from the parasail cables and rushed them to a Marathon restaurant where crews had set up a staging area.   Joining Nancy Grace Today: Mark McCulloh - Parasailing Safety Expert, Chairman, Parasail Safety Council (Florida)  Michael A. Winkleman - Maritime Attorney (Miami, FL), Lipcon, Margulies & Winkleman, Expert on Maritime and Cruise Ship Law, Lipcon.com, Twitter: @cruiseshiplaw  Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta GA, AngelaArnoldMD.com, Expert in the Treatment of Pregnant/Postpartum Women, Former Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynecology: Emory University, Former Medical Director of The Psychiatric Ob-Gyn Clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital  Robert Crispin - Private Investigator, “Crispin Special Investigations” CrispinInvestigations.com  Dr. Tim Gallagher - Medical Examiner State of Florida PathcareMed.com, Lecturer: University of Florida Medical School Forensic Medicine, Founder/Host: International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference Tim O'Hara - Reporter, The Key West Citizen, KeysNews.com  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace Don't you love vacations? You know, I was never one of those people that lived for the weekend or lived for a vacation until I had the twins, my children. Now I look forward to it. I think about it. I plan it. And when I heard about this beautiful woman, Supriya, a 33-year-old mom who dies on vacation trying to take her children out on an excursion, an adventure. I immediately thought of all the times I've taken the twins on this adventure and that excursion and just thought it was wonderful.

A 33-year-old mom dead on an excursion. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. What happened to this beautiful young mom? Just gorgeous young mom. So loving. So dedicated to her children.

Why did this have to happen? Let's start where I like to start every single jury trial if I can, and that is with the 911 call. Listen. 911, where is your emergency? I'm on the ocean by Pins and Key. A parasailor's line just broke free in there in the water. Okay, hold on a second. Let me see. Is 4110 on the water? Seven Mile Bridge, you said? Yes.

Right near Pigeon Key. Pigeon Key? There's a boat on the line. Hold on. I'm not physically there. My husband called, and he said to report it. He's on the water, and I'll give you his number if you need. Okay, so it's a parasail? Yep.

They were parasailing, and the line just snapped, and the boat's trying to get to the person, but he saw it. Line snapped. Okay. And what end of the bridge do you know? Oh, it's by Pigeon Key. Pigeon Key. Okay. Let me see if I've got somebody in the water.

What is your name? Okay. I'm going to try to get them out there. So there were, how many subjects were on the parasail? Do you know? Or in the water? He's just in the distance and it sounds like several boats are trying to get to the person, but he just wanted to report it.

Not knowing what's going to happen next. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. I don't know if it drives you crazy when I listen to these 911 calls and it seems like the 911 dispatch officer is asking all sorts of superfluous incidental information when I just want them to get the medics there. That's what

I want to happen. Again, a gorgeous young mother tries to entertain her children, taking them on this parasailing excursion, this adventure. How many times have we done something like that? I haven't done parasailing, but I've done other things. And she's dead. She is dead. Thanks for being with us, guys, at Fox Nation and Sirius XM 111. I've got an all-star panel to make sense of what we know right now. Michael Winkleman, high-profile maritime attorney joining us out of Miami at Lipkin, Margulis, and Winkleman. He's quite the expert. Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction. You can find her at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Robert Crispin. Talk about a gumshoe. Private Investigator Extraordinaire at Crispin Special Investigations. You can find him at CrispinInvestigations.com. Dr. Tim Gallagher,

Medical Examiner for the entire state of Florida. And of course, Florida will keep you busy. PathCareMed.com. Lecturer, University of Florida Medical School in Forensic Medicine, and the founder and host of the incredible International Forensic Medicine Death Investigation Conference. A very special guest joining us, Mark McCullough, a parasailing safety expert and the chairman of Parasail Safety Council. But first, Tim O'Hara joining us, reporter with the Key West Citizen. And you can find him at KeysNews.com. Tim O'Hara, I want you to hear a little bit more of this 911 call. Listen, Tim.

911, where is your emergency i went the uh seven mile bridge just east of moser's channel there was a parasailer um north of the bridge and the rope broke and he's loose okay i've got a call on this already i just want to ask you a couple questions. Hold on. Okay. Additional caller. Okay, and can you tell me it was just one male?

We don't know. Oh. It was one person in the parent's cell. Okay, so there's one person in the water now. He's being drugged across the water by the cell. Being drugged. Okay. And it's at Mos the sail. Being drugged. Okay. And it's at Moser Channel.

Moser Channel. Okay. We've got deputies and FWC and everybody on their way out there. I'm going to get the medical out there to stage for them. So thank you for calling. Okay. I just wonder every time I hear these 911 calls, have they already sent somebody? Or are they just chatting it up with people online and on the phone? Tim O'Hara joining me from the Key West Citizen Tim thanks for being with us what happened I mean some of that still needs to be worked out but as you can hear from that call

you know you have multiple boats saying you know we see this what they had thought that the line had snapped we later find out it was cut but but it snapped. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You know, Tim O'Hara talking to you is like drinking from a fire hydrant. It's just so much at once. I can't take it all in. You said, okay, first we thought the Paris, first, first, Mark McCullough joining us, Paris sailing safety expert. I know you can hear Tim O'Hara, a crack reporter with the Key West Citizen. What is he talking about?

What did he just say? Well, it sounded like what the person that called 911 thought they saw the parasail snap, a line snap. So that means while the person, parasailing means you get into some contraption with a sail, like off a sailboat behind you, and you're attached to a cord like you're skiing behind a boat, and then the cord is attached to, I guess, a speedboat, and the speedboat takes off, and then you're, in theory, supposed to go up in the air and sail behind it.

Is that what you call parasailing? That's correct. Okay. Then what is it when we drive past the water and we see people out there on a, it looks like a little floaty, like a boogie board, and they've got a sail on it and they're guiding it with their hands and their body. What is that? That's not parasailing. What is that? That's not parasailing.

What is that? It's like sailboarding. Sailboarding. Okay, okay. So we're not talking about that. We're talking about parasailing. I'm repeating to you questions that I've gotten on Insta, Twitter, and Facebook. So don't kill the messenger.

And also, I wanted to hear the difference too. So that's called, what did you say, Crispin? Is that you jumping in? Yeah, it's called kiteboarding. That's kiteboarding, yes. Kiteboarding, okay. Parasailing, a whole other animal. Now, Tim O'Hara, joining us, Key West Citizen,

did I hear you correctly that at first, what, onlookers, witnesses thought the cord had snapped? Correct. And what turned out to be three people in the harness of that were basically being blown across a sort of a bay area in an area where there is a seven-mile bridge, a very large concrete and steel structure. Why would you parasail near a cement bridge? Just first thing that pops into my head. But hold on. Mark McCullough. See, Tim O'Hara,

I don't know if this is good or bad, and no offense, Dr. Tim Gallagher, but talking to you, Tim O'Hara, reminds me of all the times I'd be getting ready for a homicide trial and I'd have to go talk, well, I actually look forward to it, talking to the medical examiner. And every line I have to go, wait, okay, let's figure out what you just said. You threw out a bunch of anatomical terms and Latin terms and doctor terms that nobody knows about but you. So what does that mean, Mark McCullough, for the line to just snap? Well, most of the accidents that result in death have been in high winds where the line actually disconnects from the boat.

Disconnects? Yeah, well, it snaps. I mean, the line can snap. Okay, see, to me, the meaning of snap means the cord breaks. But according to you, snap means it comes disengaged or unattached to the boat. Which one is it? Disengaged from the boat. Okay, Tim O'Hara, is that what you meant? I thought that meant that the cord breaks in the air.

I'm sorry. It broke free from the vessel. Okay, and that's called snap. A snap? Yeah, it would snap off or break off or disengage. So it disengaged from the boat. Is that what you thought, Jackie? Snap?

I thought the line broke, yes. I thought the line broke. But you're saying... Hey, I'm just a lawyer. I'm not a parasail expert. So line... It says parasail slang. I hear you a parasail expert. So lines... It says parasail slang. I hear you. So line snap means

the cord becomes disengaged from the boat. Not that it breaks. I would say it broke. It broke from the boat. So now you have three people basically floating in the air. So it became disengaged from the boat. They're not tethered to the boat anymore.

Okay. Back to you, Tim O'Hara. You then said you think the captain of the boat cut it? Yes. Why? Well, that's going to be the biggest question as part of this criminal investigation. That and the weather is going to be the two biggest factors going into this investigation. Tell me about the weather. Because a storm seemingly propelled

them. Who is them? All I know is about the 33 year old mom, Supriya. And her nephew. Nephew, nine years old, Vishi. Correct. And 10 year old son, Scria. Correct? Correct. Whoa. So you've got a nine and a 10 year old little boys up in the air, parasailing in a storm near a cement bridge. Do I have that much right? Yes, that's correct. But also, also, we are talking about Florida where storms, where storms do sort of like these little, you know, I will call them squalls. You know, they can brew up very fairly quickly. Now, you would think you would see this somewhere in the distance

and maybe onboard this trip. Yes. Okay. Can I just point something out to everybody? Robert Crispin, private investigator, joining me out of Florida right now. Has anybody heard of the Farmer's Almanac, or is that just me? Because since I was a little girl, little, little, we had a copy, black and white copy of the Farmer's Almanac at always in the house. My grandmother

had one. My great grandmother had one. So you have an idea about what the weather is going to be. Now, this happened on what day, Tim O'Hara? What day did this happen? I've got May 30, Memorial Day. Correct. We didn't know there was going to be a storm? So, Nancy, I'll tell you, you know, of course, we have all heard about that. But today's technology and we're in rainy season and everybody knows rainy season. It rains every single day and these walls come up out of nowhere. And this is just an epic failure at the helm by the captain on so many

different levels from that trip should have probably never went down or that captain saw that and those people should have been brought down immediately. But he elected to keep them up. Is this Crispin talking? It is. Crispin, you're right. And to you, Michael Winkleman, a high profile lawyer joining me out of Miami. Michael, I don't know if you know this and to you Michael Winkleman a high profile lawyer joining me out of Miami Michael I don't know if you know this if you don't know it you better get on my Facebook and friend me or insta or twitter because my children just graduated from middle school big deal we threw I'm let me just say quite the shindig and it had had to be outside, of course. I knew two weeks in advance it was supposed to storm that day. Two weeks beforehand, I knew there was going to be a horrible storm

the day of the graduation because I wanted to have a party and celebrate for Pete's sake. Now, how come I knew that two weeks ahead of time? I look at it every day to see if there was a change. Yet they didn't know there was going to be a major storm that propelled this young mother and a nine and a ten year old little boy. And now the mom is dead. How did I know it was going to storm that day? But they didn't. Well, Nancy, you're Nancy Grace, so you're sharp as a knife. So you have the wherewithal to be looking out for things like that.

The singular comment that I'll make in defense of these operators was that these storms do come out of nowhere. But I find that to be such a feeble excuse because Florida statute requires them to have weather determining capabilities out there so they can know exactly what's coming combine that with a small dose of common sense which is looking around and seeing the storms coming and things like this never happened and look this is this is what I do for a living I just finished a case out of Mexico where a woman was at a resort down there they wanted these fly-by-night operations took her up from the beach you can see the storm off in the distance the line snaps she's see the storm off in the distance.

The line snapped. She's in the air for 45 minutes and ends up crashing down in the airport in Mexico. Thank goodness she survived. We successfully resolved her case. But look here. We have this beautiful 33-year-old woman. Fortunately, the children did survive. But you have these terrible tragedies that are clearly preventable.

Clearly. You know, Michael Winkleman, just hearing you say that, you said this beautiful mom, and I said beautiful. And I don't mean just on the outside. I mean on the inside too. Her little boy, 10 years old, her nephew, still in the hospital, nine years old. There's just, you know, to you, Dr. Angela Arnold, high-profile psychiatrist joining me out of Atlanta,

I remember the twins being nine years old and how dependent they were and how innocent and trusting they were. And this mother, these were the loves of her life. She was beautiful on the inside. Now, she was not a parasailing expert, but this captain was. How in the H-E-L-L do you strap a- and 10-year-old little boy into a harness and put them up in the air on the day of a storm near a cement bridge

with the unassuming mommy? Mommy probably helped harness them in. I mean, it's just all wrong. Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something, Dr. Angie? And I think you may actually be the culprit. You know my daughter, Lucy, has always had a thing for sloths. They're really super cute. And she has a stuffed sloth.

She looked up pictures of sloths. Anyway, so we said, where are we going to go on vacation? Out of the blue, this child says Costa Rica. I'm like, oh, okay. So I got busy trying to make that happen in a way, you know, an affordable way to go looking for sloths. Oh, wow. Do you know when we got back from Costa Rica,

which, by the way, ended up being less money than going to Florida for a week. That said, all anybody could say was, did you go ziplining? I'm like, no, because ziplining is dangerous enough in the U.S. where we have safety measures, much less in another country. I don't even know if they have 911. So long story short, this mom, we're in Florida, we're in the U.S., what we think is the most civilized and the greatest superpower in the world, and they're still letting people go up in the air with a nine and a ten-year-old in a storm near a cement bridge? Help me, Dr. Angie. Well,

you know, Nancy, what you said at the beginning about the kids trusting their mom, and then there's a trust that if you give your money to someone and they have a boat and a parasail, that they know what they're doing. Otherwise, that woman wouldn't have taken those kids up on that parasail. No way. So you automatically trust that, and it's fun.

They're from Illinois. They're down in Florida for Memorial Day, and they wanted to do something different. And unless, Nancy, they're into crime like you are and I am, and they're hearing these stories constantly, then they may not think about the danger that may be lying in one of these activities. And hey, that's why I need to shrink. And I write about this in my new book. And I had to do a lot of research on this because we've been on a couple of Disney cruises and they let you go out on what they call excursions. That's why I'm even getting that word where you go to a banana plantation and you go see

sugar cane made and you go to a monkey preserve and just all these cool things. You go in a rainforest. That's why I call them excursions. But on our cruise that we went on, it was very controlled. You know, Disney is not going to be hooked up with some fly-by-night adventure where you end up dead. And I would carefully look at them. I started thinking about those excursions. When I heard about a zipline incident, I think it was in Mexico, I wrote a whole section about it in Don't Be a Victim. I think that when you go on vacation, you somehow suspend your common sense in a way.

And everybody does it. You aren't working. And you just trust. Yes. Right. And you're relaxed and you're having fun. They're not going to poison me. Everybody knows what they're doing.

But I don't believe that's always the case, Nancy. I think you lower your guard when you're on vacation i do too i don't know what that phenomenon is guys take a listen to our cut three our friends at wplg it happened monday evening a witness describing a harrowing scene when bad weather blew in around 6 p.m we're told people were parasailing when the tow line broke sending the chute into the bridge at least one good Samaritan in this white center console helped cut the line, getting a woman and two children out of their harnesses and onto his boat. A Marathon City official tells Local 10 the

Sunset Grill on the east side of the bridge is where the victims were taken. We saw Florida Fish and Wildlife officers speaking to several people who were then escorted to their van. Monroe County Sheriff's Office deputies also unseen. Sources say the woman in the parasail did not survive. Now take a listen to our cut number five. This is Christina Vasquez, WPLG. This video captures the heartbreaking incident. State investigators say a mother from Illinois and her two children collided into the old Seven Mile Bridge near Pigeon Key in a parasailing

accident just before 5 30 Monday afternoon. According to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the mom died from her injuries. Both children were hurt. John Callen was on his boat nearby writing on Facebook, quote, never take life for for granted things can change in a second a storm he says kicked up winds in a matter of seconds then the line connected to the parasail snapped he rushed over working with his passengers he says to cut them free from their harnesses one of those passengers he writes on facebook resuscitating one of the boys as they race to meet first responders at sunset grill a monroe county sheriff's office incident report details a harrowing account of the efforts to try and help. One boy, conscious and alert, the mom, unconscious, and another small boy, approximately nine years old, was unconscious and barely

breathing on the dock. Later flown to Nicholas Children's Hospital, staff gently guiding him in on a gurney. Unknown is how he's doing tonight. Los Angeles is famous for the always captivating entertainment industry, some of the most famous sports teams, and incredibly expensive smoothies. But beneath the glamour, it's also a breeding ground for bizarre, historic, and unforgettable crimes. My name is Madison McGee. You might know me from my podcast Ice Cold Case, where for the last three years I've been investigating my father's murder. But now I've embedded myself into the LA Times crime beat to bring you not only some of the juiciest cases, but what it takes to be a gritty crime reporter in a giant metropolis.

From LA Times Studios comes its latest series, LA Crimes. From deep dives into the Menendez brothers to conversations about why Bravo TV seems to be a hotbed of white-collar criminals, we'll cover it all. The solved, the unsolved, the love triangles gone wrong, you get the idea. Tune in every Wednesday starting May 21st, wherever you stream your podcasts. You can also watch the episodes on YouTube and Spotify. You don't want to miss this. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Back to Tim O'Hara joining us from the Key West Citizen. You can find them at keysnews.com. So Tim O'Hara, this family down from Illinois, they go out. Okay, take it from there. So, like we already discussed, so they go out. They get three of them put in the harness of this. They get put up in the parasail. They are, you know, I don't know exactly how many miles off from where the bridge is, but

the weather turns. As we spoke earlier, it's called pegged, and I'm sure your parasail expert can tell you a little bit more what that means, but basically means the weather is impacting the sail so much that it's affecting the operation of the boat. And so the captain decides at that time to cut the line, basically disengaging the parasail from the boat. And they are now, you know, being taken by the wind in the parasail. Did you just call it pegging that's what that's the term they use in the uh the parasail you know uh world as when basically the wind and the weather is impacting

the actual operation of the boat and that's when the captain decides to cut the line, basically freeing. And that's what's going to be a huge part of this investigation. And I'm sure investigators have or will ask that captain is, well, why did you feel the right cause of action was to cut this line? Well, Tim O'Hara, joining me from the Key West Citizen, you're absolutely correct. That is exactly what happened. Take a listen to our cut eight. This is Trent Kelly. Florida Fish and Wildlife releasing this new report revealing the tow rope did not snap,

but rather the captain cut the line tethering the three victims after a gust of wind pegged the parasail, meaning the chute turned into a sail and could have potentially dragged the boat. It says the woman and two kids were then dropped and dragged through the water by the inflated parasail through and across the surface of the water before colliding with the bridge. Video shows Callion's white center console arriving on scene as he and passengers perform CPR before racing everyone to the docks at the nearby Sunset Grill.

The kid was, he wasn't like screaming on the top of his lung, but he was letting me know, help me, help me. And we got him in the boat, you know, immediately. And then we got the other kid that was unconscious. And then we got his mom in the boat. One of the boys, just seven years old, was airlifted to Nicholas Children's Hospital Monday. The 33-year-old woman, identified as Supraja Alaparthi, died from her injuries. Straight out to our expert joining us, and we're so happy you're with us, Mark McCullough, the Paracel Safety Council chairman. What is PEGD? Yeah, PEGD is a term that's a loosely used term.

It's a slang for maxed out, meaning more specifically the parasails at its maximum toe angle due to extreme winds. I mean, at that point, the parasails violently swinging the back and forth like a pendulum. And, of course, the parasailers are attached there. They're helpless to stop it from oscillating back and forth. And it's actually one of the most horrifying scenes I've ever witnessed. What do you mean by that? When did you witness this happen? Well, because I've been inidences of where, you know,

where a captain ends up getting caught in a wind and the line separation, or in this case, cut, which I've never heard of before. But we don't know yet all the details. But that word pegged is rarely used, but that's what they mean by it in this case did the boat captain send out any distress signal using his vhf radio yeah that's one that's one of i have you know that's one of the several questions i had uh you know that channel 16 is a mariner's uh you know they could call mayday and that sort of that sort of takes presidents over. It's a designated distress frequency that broadcasts at the Coast Guard and other boaters and takes priority over the channels.

So the big question is, why didn't he, you know, did he reach out? That doesn't sound like it, but we'll find out. Did he? Joining us, Tim O'Hara from the Key West Citizen. Did he call distress on his radio or did he have a radio? And did he have a chase boat? I mean, I've heard of chase boats where the operation has a backup. And when I was still diving a lot all over the world, typically there is a backup in case there's some type of an accident. Did this guy have a chase boat or did he use his VHF radio? Well, it was a

single boat out there at the time. So there was no chase boat, which I will say is not uncommon for that industry, you know, to have just a single parasail boat operating out there. It's, there's nothing in the reports or interviews I've seen so far to say yes that he did call uh uh channel 16 on his marine radio uh but you know he could have been in the throes of just trying to deal with this uh why you know cutting the line steering the boat doing all of these things watching these people out there so he may not have had time because this know, we act like this went on for half hour. This could have been, all of this could have happened within, what, five, ten minutes very quickly, you know, given the wind speed,

given how far they were getting carried across the water. So it wasn't like this was, you know, even longer than this segment we're doing right now. All of this could have happened in moments. Well, I know that you said it's common that it is done, that there's not a chase boat. But just because it is done doesn't mean it should be done. And I'm just trying to figure out, I mean, I've taken a lot of looks at this bridge. It's an abandoned bridge. And I would think that you would try to stay away from big cement bridges when you go

parasailing. Well, and maybe that's the will of our state legislature this time to say, maybe we need to push these boats further out where you're, I don't know, eight, 10 miles. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on a state legislature to do anything. to me it just makes common sense i mean mark mccullough why are we going to wait on the florida state legislature to tell a boat operator what is safe and not safe because you'll be waiting till you're blue in the face hell will freeze over before you get a legislature to do anything half of them are probably making money off parasailing so that is not going to happen anytime soon. So, Mark, why would we?

I mean, isn't it just common sense that you don't parasail near a big cement abandoned bridge? Yeah, let's start back with the legislature, because I was the one who originally pushed the legislation to do regulations. But I had it when it was so strict. I actually had a distance based on the height of the toe, and they just ignored it because the parasail operators sort of started lobbying against what I had tried to push as very strict regulations. And, yeah, you're right. It was – you're not going to – no, they're not going to do anything. There's too much responsibility.

I mean, I only say that because I was a lobbyist briefly for the district attorney at the Georgia State Assembly. I did that, I think, two sessions, and I begged. I said, please let me try murders and get me out of politics. And it was anti-crime issues. But, you know, they didn't want to hear about any of that. Let me go to our guest joining us, Dr. Tim Gallagher, who's been waiting patiently. Gallagher is the medical examiner for the entire state of Florida.

And you can find him at PathCareMed.com. Dr. Gallagher, what were the injuries that this young mom suffered that led to her death? Well, before we get to that point, you know, when we do a death where someone recovered from the water, you know, the medical examiner has to answer two questions. And in this case, it's a little obvious, but those questions generally are, how did the person get into the water and why couldn't they get out of the water? The autopsy report has not been issued yet. But I would imagine that our wonderful chief medical examiner down there, Dr. Michael Steckbauer, is doing his usual A-plus job and will determine what the injuries were. Most likely blunt impact injuries, but we cannot rule out that the woman died from drowning. And then we also have to add in, and you may not like it,

but is it a natural cause when she has a medical event, you know, before the impact in the water and before she drowned? Dr. Gallagher, could you just stop right there? You think your medical degree is going to stop me from grilling you? Probably not, Nancy, knowing you. What, a piece of bacon about what you just said? Did you actually just say, with a straight face, that maybe this young, healthy, 33-year-old mother had a medical event

that occurred before she slammed into a cement bridge parasailing? And it could be natural cause of death? The possibility low but we have to eliminate it and you know i used to like you well we've had cases like this in the past where somebody has suffered an asthmatic attack you know before they impacted the water how many how many cases have you had where a mom a young healthy 33 year old mother is parasailing and has an asthma attack and dies midair strapped to a parasail. How many times has that happened to you? That has never happened, but that's not to say it never will. Oh, dear Lord in heaven, then why did you bring it up?

I just wanted to let your viewers know that we look at every aspect of the death. Well, you just said, didn't he just say we had an asthma attack? Didn't he just say that? But yet when I grill you on it, you can't think of the asthma attack. Parasailing. She ran into the bridge. She slammed into a cement bridge. She's dead. She either died from blunt force injuries.

And I'm just a JD. I don't even know what I'm saying. But I know she either died from blunt force trauma right there with her son and her nephew watching or she got hit and went into the water and that sail, that tether dragged her through the water

and it drowned her. It's one of those two things. Absolutely, that's your impression, but we have to look at it from a scientific point. We have to also include natural disease in with our gestalt opinion. Maybe she fell down the steps. Well, I mean, it's a low possibility, but we do have to include it. And that's just how the science is. Los Angeles is famous for the always captivating entertainment industry, some of the most famous sports teams, and incredibly expensive smoothies.

But beneath the glamour, it's also a breeding ground for bizarre, historic, and unforgettable crimes. My name is Madison McGee. You might know me from my podcast Ice Cold Case, where for the last three years I've been investigating my father's murder. But now I've embedded myself into the LA Times crime beat to bring you not only some of the juiciest cases, but what it takes to be a gritty crime reporter in a giant metropolis. From LA Times Studios comes its latest series, LA Crimes. From deep dives into the Menendez brothers to conversations about why Bravo TV seems to be a hotbed of white-collar criminals, we'll cover it all. The solved, the unsolved, the love triangles gone wrong, you get the idea.

Tune in every Wednesday starting May 21st, wherever you stream your podcasts. You can also watch the episodes on YouTube and Spotify. You don't want to miss this. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Tim O'Hara with Key West Citizen. She was dragged through and across the surface of the water by the inflated parasail until they collided with the old seven-mile bridge, right? Correct. Okay. So, Mark McCullough, let me understand something.

Why would he cut the cord? How would that possibly help anything? Well, we don't know the circumstances, but that's not something I've ever trained anybody, and I'm not even sure any other operators ever trained someone to cut a tow line because you totally give up control of the line yeah when you cut the line you lose control and that's it i mean these boats are very strong the line's very strong heck to blow a hole in that parachute would take about an 80 mile an hour to 100 mile an hour wind

so you've got a lot of things as the captain has a lot of things at their resources, the fact that these newer vessels are much bigger, stronger, heavier, and you know, the fact that you'd cut a tow line, I don't care if you're being dragged backwards or, you know, panicking because maybe there's water on coming in over the back end of the boat. There's just no circumstances in which someone would cut a line that I know of. Well, he did it. And when you cut the line, what happens then, Mark McCullough, once you cut that line?

Well, then now you've got no control. Now the wind takes over. And as what happened is that they probably glided for quite a ways before they hit the water. And we don't know how long they were in the water being dragged backwards but i can tell you in in past cases that i've investigated where we've had water landings um nine times out of ten the person drowns because that water just covers you and you can hardly breathe like i said it's like being waterboarded you can't breathe and and uh as a doctor the doctor said is that, she could have had a

condition where, you know, that maybe she couldn't catch her wind or catch it or she was, you know, scared, panic, whatever. You mean drowned? Yeah. I don't know that I would blame her and her fake asthma you guys have cooked up as to why. I mean, think of somebody skiing face down, being pulled through the water behind a speedboat. There's no way you can breathe the water at that velocity being pumped right into your face. And here's the kicker. Not the first time this has happened. As a matter of fact, right there in Florida. Take a listen to our cut 13, our friend Rob Nelson at ABC.

It's the terrifying moment caught on camera. Watch as a parasail containing two riders breaks loose from the boat leading it and slams into two nearby condominiums in Panama Beach, Florida. All before crashing into a parking lot full of cars. We are at the Commodore and two peripheralers just smashed into the top of it. This morning two 17 year old Indiana girls, Alexis Fairchild and Sydney Good, remain in critical condition at an area hospital. Initial reports from investigators say that on Monday an afternoon storm developed with strong winds and that these winds kept the chute aloft and several attempts to winch the riders back onto the vessel failed. The company who ran the outing, Aquatic Adventures, is declining to comment. The very popular vacation sport is an industry with very little regulation. Just this May, Florida legislators failed to pass a bill that would have put new safety standards in place.

One of the biggest opponents, Aquatic Adventures, the owner of the boat involved in this incident. That incident also happened in Florida with two teen girls. I've got so many similar transactions here where the same thing happens. Parasail becomes unhooked, flies untethered for 45 minutes. It goes on and on and on. 15-year-old Amber Mae White dies when wind gusts snaps the line. Parasailing with sister. I mean, there's so many of these incidents. But what it boils down to right here, Dr. Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrist out of Atlanta. What happens when a child this young, nine, loses their mother?

Nancy, there is a wonderful study that was published in 2018 from the American Journal of Psychiatry. It was a longitudinal study that looked at children who had lost their parents or a mother from all different kinds of deaths, suicide, trauma, natural causes. During the first two years after a child loses a parent, they are at a very high risk of suffering from depression. So it's important for whoever the surviving parent is to be looking out for this and treat it. Because actually what they also found in this study is that this affects the child socially and mentally for years into their life.

But the first thing they have to look for, the first thing they need to be looking for in these children who have lost a parent are signs and symptoms of depression in that first two years. And they need to jump on it and treat it and not wish it away. Robert Crispin joining me, Crispin Special Investigations also joining us from Florida along with Michael Winkleman, Maritime Lawyer in Florida. You know, Crispin, I think when people go on vacation, and I'm sure you see this a lot in Florida, your defenses are lowered.

You don't think you're going to have a crash when you rent that moped or that bird or that parasailing adventure or scuba or whatever it is you're doing. You don't. There's so many incidents like that happening at vacation spots. I don't, it's, you know, I was just down in Florida and we went to Gatorland or Gator World and they had a zip line over the gators. My son had a fit to zip line over the pond of gators. I'm like, son, have you lost your mind? You're not ziplining over alligators. That's not happening.

When you move out at age 35 from home, you can then go do whatever you want, including ziplining over gators. But you're not ziplining over gators on my watch. Oh, the sulk. As my mom used to say, you could have plant a row of turnips on his bottom lip. He was sticking it out so far. So what I'm saying is these people probably had no idea how dangerous this really was. Listen, Nancy, this all comes down to one person. And in every single one of

these events that we have spoken about, it comes back to one person, the captain. The captain is ultimately responsible for who's on his vessel or who is associated with his vessel, whether you're parasailing, you're diving, whatever you're doing, that captain is 100% responsible. In each of these situations, the captain made a poor decision, absolutely made a poor decision. Those boats never should have been out in that wind. Those kids that got detached from their tethers on the other situations we talked about, that's an equipment failure. I guarantee you, in those investigations, you're going to find faulty equipment. I guarantee you in this particular situation, and I vote in South Florida every weekend, it's a epic failure on the captain's part. And who he or his observer instructed to cut that line was the ultimate

demise of those three people. Agree or disagree, Michael Winkleman? Oh, I completely agree with everything you said, in particular, Nancy, that I think when people go on these vacations, they do let their guard down. And you have these inherently dangerous activities that are putting families at risk, and not enough is done to make them safe. I think even before you get the captain operation and blaming them, it is an issue of regulation. And I think regulation has become such a political hot button issue. But here, let's all like take a little spoonful of common sense.

We want to regulate parasail operators so that they can do this safely so that we're not on this show talking about terrible tragedies like this. This is where common sense regulation needs to come into play. Nancy, the beauty of all this is the captain always has the right to say no, we're not going. Just like your pilot in bad weather, when you sit on the runway and everyone on that plane is upset that that thing's not taken off. You know why? Because that guy in the left seat, that captain, he said no. It's no. And a lot of these should have been a no. And to you, Tim O'Hara, joining us from the Key West Citizen, where does it stand right now? Well, this isn't the first time we've had this.

Two years ago, we had two other people die when the line broke. No one cut it, but it broke. And the parasail boat, the captain of that boat has been charged with two counts of manslaughter. So I think we first need to see where that case is going. Because no even arrest has been made in this case with the mother and the two small children. We do have a case from two years ago. Charges were filed about a year ago. Not much activity, you know, with COVID. A lot of that stuff shut down. But that case will be coming to trial or a plea deal, I would think, fairly soon. So we'll get a sense of how this plays out in the courtroom.

You know, because in that case, you know, the way he was arrested in charge is they said other captains that day chose not to fly. He chose to go out further and the storm caught up with him and ended up the line breaking and two people drowned. So we'll know, you know, I would think before this case, you know, there is a precedent here. And we have a very, I will say, you know, a bit of a bulldog prosecutor and our state attorney down here, sort of the Nancy Grace of the Florida Keys, I'll say. And he's taken this case boldly. This is very serious. I have spoken to him a few times since this case. I take it that I'm the dog in this scenario?

Well, I would think you're the bulldog in this scenario, the way you're... I'll take it in the light most favorable to you. We wait as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.