Avid diver dies after losing consciousness off Alki

Avid diver dies after losing consciousness off Alki

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Story Published: Jan 6, 2008 at 1:46 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jan 7, 2008 at 8:36 AM PDT

By KOMO Staff

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SEATTLE -- A scuba diver who was pulled from Elliott Bay near Alki Point on Saturday has died, the King County Medical Examiner's Office said on Sunday.

Josh Magee was in the water when he began screaming for help around 1:30 p.m. When nearby divers reached him, he was unconscious.

The divers pulled him out of the water medics rescuer performed CPR, but he could not be saved.

Friends remember the 33 year old as a thrill seeker who took everything to the extreme. The avid diver even proposed to his girlfriend underwater.

"We went to the dive shop where he got me lessons, and I said, 'you know the lessons I had? I got engaged over them,'" said Resa Shuck, his fiance.

Shuck says their story started with a clamshell.

Magee signed her up for scuba diving lessons in celebration of their one-year anniversary, hoping she'll grow to share his passion.

Shuck admits she wasn't too thrilled at first.

"He said 'you're not that excited.' And I was like, 'It's not really that romantic... I kind of expected a ring,'" she said.

What she didn't know then was that the lessons would soon provide the perfect disguise for Magee's plan, which revealed itself on their first dive together near Whidbey Island.

Unbeknownst to Shuck, Magee brought along a clam shell with him and kept it hidden until the right time.

"I saw him looking, and I saw him struggling with something, and all of a sudden I went to show him this shell, and he pointed out this other shell, and I saw it, and said, 'it's so gorgeous,'" she said.

Shuck picked up the ring and inside, found a ring and a message: "marry me."

She says she never saw it coming. But just moments later, the ring was gone.

"I went to grab the ring, and he dropped it," she said. "This was such a great proposal, what happened?"

The drop turned out to be part of Magee's plan as well. He had hidden the real engagement ring in his truck; the ring in the clamshell had been a mere stunt double.

The couple came back to the surface, ready to share the news of their engagement.

Their second dive together on Saturday, however, had a much darker ending.

Shuck was on shore when she heard her fiance calling for help. She yelled at nearby divers for help, then tried to swim to Magee but the water proved too cold.

"They followed my direction well, and got to him so fast, only about two minutes," she said.

Despite their efforts, Magee did not survive.

Officials do not know how long Magee struggled in the water before he was rescued. An autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

Shuck says her fiance died doing something he loved to do.

"Josh never did anything half way; he did everything to the to the full extent," she said. "He always tried to make me a part of it."

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