Hundreds gather to honor missing diver, hours after USCG suspends search

NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. — There’s no question Timothy Obi was loved by many.

Hundreds took to the beach on Tuesday night, just about two hours after the Coast Guard suspended the search, to celebrate the man they all knew and loved.

“He was such a good guy, and he was always there, so I still think it’s something that we really cannot comprehend that he won’t be there for us now,” said Holden Harris, a friend of Obi.

Harris, a marine ecologist at the University of Florida, was one of many who went out searching for Obi over the last four days.

He was actually the diver who found Obi’s damaged gear on Tuesday afternoon that prompted the Coast Guard to call off the search.

“It was all together. So his BCD, his tank, his speargun, which was still loaded. … His strainer was there with no fish. His mask was there. He also had his diver’s submersible buoy in his pocket,” Harris said.

Harris said he found all the gear within 8 feet of each other, 125 feet below the surface at Elton’s Bottom.

The same area where Obi first went missing Saturday morning.

Harris said, “I think it’s really important for the family to know what happened. He wasn’t on the surface floating for days. I think whatever happened would have happened immediately.”

In a news release regarding the suspended search, the Coast Guard wrote, “The location and condition of the gear are consistent with a suspected encounter with a marine predator.”

“I really, really don’t think that that was the cause of death,” Harris said.

Harris hopes what he found and how he found those items bring some sort of closure to the family and those who loved him most.

And there’s one thing that can bring peace to this tragedy — knowing Obi passed away doing what he loved.

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“He loved the ocean. He was in it every chance he could. It’s one of the best surfers I’ve ever seen. He was a diver and a boater and an ocean lover, so that’s where he would want to be,” said Harris.

A GoFund Me has been created for the family, you can find it here.

PHOTOS: Timothy Obi a Jax native, loving husband, and father of 3

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