Family Speaks Out; Son Lost in Scuba Accident

By Cathleen O'Toole First Coast News

KINGSLAND, GA ? 19-year-old Mark Granger lived his life on the water. Out back of his family?s rural Georgia home sits ?Mark?s Park.? It?s a grouping of chairs with a serene view of Temple Creek, which meanders into the St. Mary?s River. Tragically, he died as he lived, on the water.

"He was like a little duck,? says Mark?s mom, Gwen Granger. ?He learned to swim as a little baby." The tears still come easily for Gwen and her husband Donnie. Their youngest son went scuba diving in a Suwannee County spring more than two years ago. Mark and a buddy went in an underwater cave -- and never found their way out.

"I miss him desperately,? says Gwen with a tear rolling down her face. ?I'm saddened that there will be no more. This is permanent, there's no going back."

The Grangers blame Mark's diving instructor. Their son just received his basic certification. They say he should have never been taken near the Royal Springs cave.

"I just felt confident that he was in good hands,? says Donnie Granger, Mark?s father. ?I'm just warning the fathers and brothers to go meet your instructors. And see that they have some discernment, see that they have some assertion."

The family hired a Jacksonville attorney who helped them file suit against the diving instructor and the association that certifies teachers. Woody Wilner says that association needs to do a better job of monitoring its instructors. "Just because you have a certification as an instructor,? says Wilner, ?doesn't mean that you have a safe attitude."

This week Wilner helped the family settle both suits, for an undisclosed six-figure amount. But the family wants more to come of Mark?s death.

"We don't want this to happen to another child, another mom and dad, another brother," says Gwen Granger. "It was unfair."

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