Casefile Extra: Ben McDaniel

2026-05-16

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Casefile Extra features bonus episodes exploring compelling cases, stories and topics beyond our regular weekly releases.On Friday, August 20 2010, officers from the Holmes County Sheriff's Department were called to Vortex Spring, a commercially operated dive park just outside the Florida town of Ponce de Leon. A 30-year-old scuba diver from Tennessee by the name of Ben McDaniel had failed to resurface after diving into the narrow cave network under the basin of the spring two nights earlier, and nobody had seen or heard from him since....

Casefile Extra features bonus episodes exploring compelling cases, stories and topics beyond our regular weekly releases.

On Friday, August 20 2010, officers from the Holmes County Sheriff's Department were called to Vortex Spring, a commercially operated dive park just outside the Florida town of Ponce de Leon. A 30-year-old scuba diver from Tennessee by the name of Ben McDaniel had failed to resurface after diving into the narrow cave network under the basin of the spring two nights earlier, and nobody had seen or heard from him since.

When a recovery mission failed to find any sign of Ben, his loved ones and members of the cave diving community were left in shock. Was Ben stuck in an unexplored part of the cave somewhere, or was something else entirely at play?

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Narration – Anonymous Host

Research & writing – Elsha McGill

Production & music – Mike Migas

Audio editing – Anthony Telfer