Death papers OK’d for man who went missing at Grotto

The Superior Court granted last Friday the petition to declare the presumptive death of a man who went missing at the Grotto.

John J. Jones went missing after a dive at the Grotto back on Nov. 18, 2018. After five days, the search was called off and Jones has not been seen or heard of since.

On March 14, 2019, Jones’ wife, Madelyn Ann Jones, of Renton, Washington, asked the court to direct the CNMI Registrar to prepare a death certificate establishing a presumption of death for her husband.

Last Friday, Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph Camacho issued an official order for the Registrar of Vital Statistics to prepare a death certificate marked “presumptive” for Jones that shows he died on Nov. 18, 2018.

According to the order, the court found that Jones was exposed to a specific peril of death, the sea, and has been absent for a continuous period during which he has not been heard from.

In the order, the court cited In re Benedek, a case similar to Jones’. Like Benedek, Jones was determined lost at sea and appeared to have drowned during a dive.

“Jones has been absent for a continuous period from Nov. 18, 2018, until the date of the hearing (116 days). During this time, his wife has not heard from him. Jones was last seen while scuba diving, low on air in his tank, in the open ocean outside of Grotto. The sea, as found in Benedek, poses a specific peril of death. Despite diligent efforts, Jones’ absence has not been satisfactorily explained. No other explanation other than Jones’ death is suggested to explain his disappearance. The court concludes, as a matter of fact, that Jones died on Nov. 18, 2018,” the order states.

Madelyn Ann Jones, through counsel Rexford C. Kosack, asked the court to issue the order to complete a death certificate for her husband.

According to Kosack in the petition, the 65-year-old Jones left behind a wife of 46 years, two children, five grandchildren, and his mother.

Jones worked for the Federal Aviation Administration for 30 years and his last position was in operations engineering for the NAVAID Support Center. He served for two years in the U.S. Armed Forces in the Marine Corps.

According to reports from the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, Jones went missing while scuba diving at the Grotto with three other persons in the morning of Nov. 18, 2018.

The search for Jones was called off several days later.

Kosack said Jones was one of two FAA employees temporarily detailed to Saipan to help repair the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport after it was damaged by Super Typhoon Yutu.

Kosack said Jones and the other FAA employee went diving last Nov. 18 for weekend relaxation. The two entered the waters to scuba dive at the Grotto with two other divers, who were both dive instructors.

Kosack said Jones and the other FAA employee were being led on a dive tour as customers of a diving company when they dove that day at the Grotto.

Kosack said that the four divers entered the water at the Grotto at 9am and swam together through one of the underwater passages to outside the Grotto.

When the four divers were outside the Grotto, Jones signaled to one of the dive instructors that he was running low on air. At that time, he was about 60 feet below the surface of the ocean.

The dive instructor then used hand signals to inform the other dive instructor and FAA employee that he was also low on air and that they should return to the Grotto.

After that, the dive instructor turned back to Jones but he was no longer there.

The other dive instructor and FAA employee swam back into the Grotto through a passage without Jones, as the other FAA employee was also low on air.

The remaining dive instructor swam in the other direction toward the ocean to search for Jones.

The other dive instructor dropped the remaining FAA employee by the buoy inside the Grotto, then swam back through the passage to search for Jones.

Kosack said the two spent about 25 minutes searching for Jones, but they did not find him.

Kosack said the two returned to the Grotto, obtained fresh tanks of air and went back outside the Grotto to where they last saw John J. Jones.

He said the two divers searched up and down the cliffline outside the Grotto, but they were unable to find Jones.
The U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, and the DPS searched for Jones for several days. The search was suspended on Nov. 24.