The facts unequivocally show reckless endangerment and/or negligent homicide in Linnea’s case. Without criminal accountability the scuba industry will continue to kill students. 

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If you are inspired to join the movement for accountability and justice for Linnea, there are two important actions you can take to ensure that a criminal case moves forward. 

 

1) Demand the correction of Linnea’s patently false autopsy. 

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The initial information on what happened during Linnea’s fatal dive was provided to the coroner by Gull Dive owner Jeannine Olson, who was not on the dive. Jeannine Olson gave the coroner a self-serving fabrication that Linnea was “witnessed by [a] ‘dive buddy’ to panic, then fall passively to the bottom of a lake after swimming without difficulty at a depth of approximately 40 feet.” That core Big Lie was passed from the coroner to Aldo J. Fusaro, D.O., the Assistant Montana State Medical Examiner, who ignored definitive evidence (including the GoPro video footage and pressure-induced bruising on Linnea’s body) and amplified the Big Lie in his autopsy report:

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The deceased was in a scuba class and was diving in a local lake. She was swimming at approximately 40 feet, when she made an unintelligible gesture to her dive buddy. She was observed to fall passively through the water. She was later found on the lake bottom with her regulator out of her mouth… This 18-year-old female died as a result of asphyxia due to drowning. The manner of death is accident. 

 

It would be hard to write an autopsy any more contrary to the facts. Linnea was not swimming at 40 feet or passive in any way — she was actively struggling against the crushing squeeze of a non-functional dry suit and the downward pull of two building bricks of zipped-in weight. And she was gesturing to get the attention of her instructor Debbie who swam obliviously by as Linnea fell backwards off a cliff. This was not a simple drowning, and it was not an accident. Linnea was killed by the crush of a non-functional divesuit, an insanely dangerous choice of a training dive site, and over it all: abandonment of duty of care for her safety.

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Contact the following to demand that Linnea’s autopsy is corrected: 

 

Travis Spinder, Forensic Science Division
Department of Justice

2679 Palmer Street
P.O. Box 16170
Missoula, MT 59808 USA

Phone: +1 406.728.4970
E-mail: contactdoj@mt.gov

 

2) Call for the Montana US Attorney and the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior and National Park Service to reopen criminal investigation of Debbie Snow, Jeannine Olsen, and PADI. 

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Collectively, the U.S. Attorney and the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior and National Park Service should investigate the failure of best practice investigative and accountability protocols for Linnea’s death. Unfortunately, we have learned this has been an ongoing and continuing problem for other scuba dive fatalities. 

In Linnea’s case, this includes the false autopsy; a compromised chain of custody of Linnea’s dive computer and its data, which was taken from the scene without informing investigators and withheld from the National Park Service investigators for 2 years; and the GoPro video of the event which was not carefully analyzed by scuba dive experts. The National Park Service Investigative Report of Linnea's death should be revised to incorporate these key pieces of evidence whose omission led the US Attorney to fail to file any criminal charges in June 2021.

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Based on all of these errors and oversights, the Montana US Attorney and the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior and National Park Service should reopen criminal investigation of Debbie Snow, Jeannine Olsen, and PADI. (There is no statute of limitations for homicide).

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In addition to consideration of the previously ignored evidence, the US Attorney and the Inspector General should be asked why they limited their consideration to only Criminal Endangerment charges, which assumes an intent to kill. Why did they not also consider the obvious alternatives of Negligent Endangerment or Negligent Homicide? Negligent Homicide under Mont. Code Ann. § 45-5-104 or Negligent Endangerment under Mont. Code Ann. § 45-5-208 require only a showing of negligent conduct “that creates a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another,” and not the showing of intent.  

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Ask the people below, in your words: In what universe can criminal negligence standards not be met by the tsunami of negligence that caused Linnea’s horrific death, and could easily have killed other students that day? 

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Write or call to demand that the U.S. Attorney and the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior and National Park Service investigate the failure of best practice investigative and accountability protocols for Linnea’s death.

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Write or call to demand that the Montana US Attorney and the Inspector General for the Department of the Interior and National Park Service reopen the criminal investigation of Debbie Snow, Jeannine Olsen, and PADI and revise the National Park Service Investigative Report of Linnea’s death to bring to light the ignored evidence.

 

United States Attorney for the District of Montana (currently Kurt Alme)

2601 2nd Ave. North

Suite 3200

Billings, MT 59801 USA

Phone: +1 406-657-6101

 

Caryl Brzymialkiewicz, Acting Inspector General for the Department of the Interior and National Park Service 

Office of the Inspector General 

U.S. Department of the Interior 

1849 C Street NW - Mail Stop 4428 

Washington, D.C. 20240 USA

Phone: +1 202-208-5745

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See the letter written by Jim Lapenta in the summer of 2021 as an example of effective advocacy in pursuit of justice for Linnea.