Edhat Staff
Source: Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
In a press briefing held at Sheriff’s Headquarters this afternoon, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown announced that all 34 victims of the Conception dive boat disaster have been identified.
The last victim from the Conception was located yesterday in a cove just west of where the vessel sank. Divers from the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office, supported by the State Department of Fish and Wildlife were assigned to search the area as part of the Search and Recovery operations which resumed earlier this week.
The Sheriff credited his Coroner’s Bureau, who was assisted by Sacramento County Coroner’s Office and Los Angeles County Medical Examiners Office, and the use of rapid DNA technology from the ANDE corporation for the successful identification of the victims.
Sheriff Brown said, “It is with a heavy heart that I share the names of those lost with you”.
Carol Diana Adamic 60 F Santa Cruz, CA
Juha Pekka Ahopelto 50 M Sunnyvale, CA
Neal Gustav Baltz 42 M Phoenix, AZ
Patricia Ann Beitzinger 48 F Chandler AZ
Vaidehi Campbell 41 F Felton, CA
Raymond “Scott” Chan 59 M Los Altos, CA
Kendra Chan 26 F Oxnard, CA
Adrian Dahood-Fritz 40 F Sacramento, CA
Justin Carroll Dignam 58 M Anaheim, CA
Berenice Felipe 16 F Santa Cruz, CA
Lisa Fiedler 52 F Mill Valley, CA
Kristina “Kristy” Finstad 41 F Santa Cruz, CA
Andrew Fritz 40 M Sacramento, CA
Daniel Garcia 46 M Berkeley, CA
Marybeth Guiney 51 F Santa Monica, CA
Yuko Hatano 39 F San Jose, CA
Yulia Krashennaya 40 F Berkeley, CA
Alexandra Kurtz 26 F Santa Barbara, CA
Xiang Lin 45 F Fremont, CA
Caroline McLaughlin 35 F Oakland, CA
Charles McIlvain 44 M Santa Monica, CA
Kaustubh Nirmal 33 M Stamford, CT
Sanjeeri DeoPujari (Nirmal) 31 F Stamford, CT
Angela Rose Quitasol 28 F Stockton, CA
Evan Michel Quitasol 37 F Stockton, CA
Nicole Storm Quitasol 31 F Imperial Beach, CA
Michael Quitasol 62 M Stockton, CA
Steven Salika 55 M Santa Cruz, CA
Tia Salika-Adamic 17 F Santa Cruz, CA
Sumil Sandhu 45 M Half Moon Bay, CA
Fernisa Sison 57 F Stockton, CA
Ted Strom 62 M Germantown, TN
Kristian Takvam 34 M San Francisco, CA
Wei Tan 26 F Goleta, CA
[Read more about the victims here]
Sheriff Brown praised the coordination and cooperation of all of the dive teams involved in the, “physically and emotionally challenging task” of searching and recovering the victims. Dive teams and dive support included the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Port Police, Federal Bureau of Investigations, National Parks Service and the State Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Sheriff ended his remarks by expressing his sincere gratitude and appreciation for all of the incident partners in Unified Command, including the Coast Guard, Santa Barbara County Fire Department and the National Parks Service as well as the representatives and assistance provided by all of the other federal, state and local agencies that supported the incident.
