{"id":17814,"date":"2026-05-19T14:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/17814\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:08:15","slug":"elite-divers-recover-bodies-of-two-italian-tourists-from-underwater-maldives-cave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/17814\/","title":{"rendered":"Elite divers recover bodies of two Italian tourists from underwater Maldives cave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An elite team of Finnish divers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two of the four Italian tourists who died in\u00a0a shark-infested\u00a0underwater cave in the Maldives\u00a0\u2014 as prosecutors launched a\u00a0culpable-homicide\u00a0investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The remains of University of Genoa ecology teacher\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/15\/world-news\/italian-husband-who-lost-wife-in-maldives-diving-tragedy-something-happened-down-there\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Monica Montefalcone, 52,\u00a0<\/a>and researcher Federico Gualtieri, 31, were recovered from around 200 feet, sources\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ansa.it\/english\/news\/general_news\/2026\/05\/19\/bodies-of-two-italian-divers-who-died-in-maldives-recovered_1bc2316d-6cf9-4d51-9d1e-ae13d3428cc8.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">told Italy\u2019s ANSA news agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Three Finnish divers found the four tourists\u00a0Monday\u00a0inside the cave\u2019s third segment, which officials say is the largest part.<\/p>\n<p>Divers have now recovered two of the four missing Italians who vanished on a scuba dive.  Maldives President Media Division via AP<\/p>\n<p>The recovery mission continues for Montefalcone\u2019s daughter,\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/05\/15\/world-news\/italian-husband-who-lost-wife-in-maldives-diving-tragedy-something-happened-down-there\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Giorgia Sommacal, 20,<\/a>\u00a0and Muriel Oddenino, 31, with the expert dive team hoping\u00a0to be able\u00a0to recover the final bodies on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The elite squad was assembled in 48 hours by the group Divers Alert Network Europe.<\/p>\n<p>The Divers\u2019 Alert Network Europe, which deployed the three Finnish divers, said on its website that they are technical and cave divers with international experience in search and recovery missions, including operations in \u201cdeep overhead environments, confined spaces and high-risk scenarios.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Monica Montefalcone, an Italian tourist who died during a dive in the Maldives, smiling in a wetsuit on a boat. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n<p>Muriel Oddenino, one of five Italian nationals who died while scuba diving in the Maldives. Muriel Oddenino \/ Facebook<\/p>\n<p>The team used advanced technical systems, including closed-circuit\u00a0rebreathers, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber,\u00a0allowing for \u201csignificantly longer dives,\u201d the organization said.<\/p>\n<p>There was a race against time to find the bodies \u2013 before\u00a0they were consumed by sharks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll bring [the victims\u2019 bodies] back. We can\u2019t leave them at the mercy of the sharks. We need experts here,\u201d DAN Europe CEO Laura Marroni\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lastampa.it\/cronaca\/2026\/05\/17\/news\/laura_marroni_visibilita_scarsa_correnti_e_strettoie_ingaggiati_tre_speleosub_finlandesi-15625139\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">told Italian newspaper La\u00a0Stampa last week.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Giorgia Sommacal, Montefalcone\u2019s daughter, died during the scuba dive.  Giorgia Sommacal \/ Instagram<\/p>\n<p>Federico Gualtieri was also missing following the dive. ZUMAPRESS.com<\/p>\n<p>The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was recovered on Friday near the entrance to the same cave.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Rome prosecutors have launched a culpable homicide probe into the deaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Autopsies will be performed when the bodies arrive back in Italy, sources told ANSA.<\/p>\n<p>The tourists were on the Duke of York boat with another 20 Italians before they jumped into the water \u2013 and they are set to be quizzed by investigators.<\/p>\n<p>With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elite team of Finnish divers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two of the four Italian tourists&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12094,13080,5,12049,12117,243],"class_list":["post-17814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-italy","tag-diving","tag-freak-accidents","tag-italy","tag-maldives","tag-scuba-divers","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}