Local diving expert remembers friend as passionate scuba diver

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — We are learning more about Colleen Monfore, a South Dakota native who went missing while on a scuba diving trip off the coast of Indonesia. A fisherman found her body inside of a shark near the neighboring country of Timor-Leste, according to London-based newspaper The Sun .

Bill Donovan, who is the co-owner of Donovans Hobby and Scuba Center, is a longtime friend of Monfore.

“From my days learning to scuba dive back at SDSU, I met quite a few different people in the diving area here in South Dakota, and Mike and Colleen Monfore were two of my diving friends, people that I went spearfishing with,” Donovan said.

He says Colleen and her husband, Mike, logged plenty of dives together.

“She and Mike had thousands and thousands of dives all over the Caribbean and in the world, so now, they’re very much in passion by the sport of scuba diving and really love travel and also the underwater photography aspect of it,” Donavan said.

Donovan didn’t know what to think when he heard of Colleen’s passing.

“When I heard about the loss of Colleen, there was a lot of speculation. You know, you don’t know,” Donovan said.

The family believes that with the facts they have, it was not a shark or the environment that took Colleen’s life at the time she went missing in the water. Instead, they believe it was a medical issue.

“From the area where they were diving to where they found her, that was like 70 miles away, so she drifted with the current and then the shark found her,” Donovan said.

But Donovan is glad Colleen’s family has some answers.

“Kind of a tragic ending, but on the other hand, there’s some closure there. Now, they know that her body was found, or parts of her body were found, and they know that that’s where she ended up at,” Donavan said.

Donovan also says that it is rare for an accident like this to occur while scuba diving.

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