FSU Panama City students dive deep with Underwater Crime Scene Investigation certificate

Just after sunrise at the Panama City Marina, a team of Florida State University Panama City students geared up for a dive. They unloaded equipment from a truck, walked the length of the pier, and scanned the scene that included a boat docked in still water. Today’s mission: Solve a simulated underwater crime.

The scenario felt real. According to the exercise, a diver working on the boat propeller overnight failed to check in. The team suspected the worst — that the diver was still underwater.

These students are part of FSU Panama City’s Underwater Crime Scene Investigation (UCSI) program, where training dives like this one happen regularly.

Mike Davis, director of operations for FSU’s Advanced Science Diving Program, said the simulations are designed to teach students how to methodically handle underwater investigations.

“They will mark out a search area, search through the area to find evidence and the body,” Davis said. “Once they identify where it is, they’ll mark the body, mark all the evidence and mark the positions based on some reference point, so if the evidence is required at trial, it is accurately depicted — where it was, the depth of the water, all of those references.”

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