Volusia sheriff: Remains of Atlantic Ocean diver who went missing in 2006 positively ID'd
The remains of an Atlantic Ocean diver who went missing off the coast of Ponce Inlet in 2006 have been identified, according to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
Robert "Bobby" Martin, who was a 45-year-old condominium maintenance worker from New Smyrna Beach, went missing during a scuba diving trip in an eight-mile stretch of reefs called the "Party Grounds," some 22 miles east of Ponce de Leon Inlet.
In 2007, scuba gear was recovered from a diving spot east of Ponce Inlet and was linked to Martin by tracing it to the dive shop that sold it, a Volusia sheriff's social-media post states.
According to the sheriff's office, later in 2007, a woman walking along New Smyrna Beach discovered partial human remains and reported it to law enforcement.
Those were two of the pieces Volusia sheriff's detectives and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Genetic Genealogy Investigations team used to help positively identify the remains as Martin's.
Martin went diving with Lawrence and Rebecca Patterson on their boat Restless Native on Sept. 30, 2006.
"According to two people diving with him, he surfaced, gave the signal that he was in distress, slipped beneath the surface and did not resurface," U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Donnie Brzuska said told The News-Journal in 2006. "They tried to locate him and couldn't find him."
A few days after Martin's disappearance, Lawrence Patterson, then of Daytona Beach, described him to the News-Journal as someone who lived to "work, dive and sleep."
Patterson said he and Martin were diving 80 feet below the surface, looking for lobsters, when Martin swam off on his own. Some 35 minutes later, Rebecca Patterson heard Martin call for help some 400 feet from the boat.
"He was gone in the blink of an eye," Lawrence Patterson said at the time.
A 30-hour Coast Guard search covered 240 square miles over the weekend Martin went missing. By the end, searchers were "confident" they were not going to find Martin alive, Brzuska had said.
Martin worked at the Moontide condominium as a maintenance man. In his shop, Martin had posted pictures of himself in diving gear.
His boss, the condo manager Tana Keith, remembered him as "hard-headed, but he had a heart of gold," as well as a "wonderful work ethic" and a "great sense of humor."
A seashell-covered wreath was posted on the condo's door along with a notice to residents about Martin's loss. Someone posted a note on a nearby bulletin board: "Neptune caught himself a good one this time."
Martin was listed in the Florida Crime Information Center/National Crime Information Center as a missing person in August 2008.
"(Volusia) detectives exhausted all avenues to obtain a DNA match but were unable to identify or locate any potential family members, and their efforts came up empty," the sheriff's office post reads.
It wasn't until January 2025 that the case started coming to a close. The Sheriff's Office post states that the Volusia County Medical Examiner's Office and funding from FDLE's Missing and Unidentified Human Remains grant led to a DNA match to one of Martin's family members.
Data was submitted to Othram, Inc., for DNA sequencing and a database search. When it came back, FDLE experts conducted "extensive analytical and genetic genealogy research," providing the DNA match and positive identification of Martin in May.
The medical examiner reviewed the case, including an inspection of the 2007 dive equipment recovery, and deemed Martin's death accidental, the Sheriff's Office said.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Diver's remains identified through DNA 19 years after he went missing
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