Santa Barbara 9/12/19 – In a press briefing held at Sheriff’s Headquarters this afternoon, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown announced that all 34 victims of the Conception dive boat disaster have been identified.

The last victim from the Conception was located yesterday in a cove just west of where the vessel sank.  Divers from the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office, supported by the State Department of Fish and Wildlife were assigned to search the area as part of the Search and Recovery operations which resumed earlier this week.

The Sheriff credited his Coroner’s Bureau, who was assisted by Sacramento County Coroner’s Office and Los Angeles County Medical Examiners Office, and the use of rapid DNA technology from the ANDE corporation for the successful identification of the victims.

Sheriff Brown said, “It is with a heavy heart that I share the names of those lost with you”.

Carol Diana Adamic                 60        F          Santa Cruz, CA
Juha Pekka Ahopelto               50        M         Sunnyvale, CA
Neal Gustav Baltz                    42        M         Phoenix, AZ
Patricia Ann Beitzinger            48        F          Chandler AZ
Vaidehi Campbell                     41        F          Felton, CA
Raymond “Scott” Chan            59        M         Los Altos, CA
Kendra Chan                            26        F          Oxnard, CA
Adrian Dahood-Fritz                 40        F          Sacramento, CA
Justin Carroll Dignam               58        M         Anaheim, CA
Berenice Felipe                        16        F          Santa Cruz, CA
Lisa Fiedler                               52        F          Mill Valley, CA
Kristina “Kristy” Finstad            41        F          Santa Cruz, CA
Andrew Fritz                             40        M         Sacramento, CA
Daniel Garcia                           46        M         Berkeley, CA
Marybeth Guiney                      51        F          Santa Monica, CA
Yuko Hatano                             39        F          San Jose, CA
Yulia Krashennaya                   40         F          Berkeley, CA
Alexandra Kurtz                        26        F          Santa Barbara, CA
Xiang Lin                                  45         F          Fremont, CA
Caroline McLaughlin                35         F          Oakland, CA
Charles McIlvain                       44        M         Santa Monica, CA
Kaustubh Nirmal                       33        M         Stamford, CT
Sanjeeri DeoPujari (Nirmal)      31        F          Stamford, CT
Angela Rose Quitasol               28        F          Stockton, CA
Evan Michel Quitasol                37        F          Stockton, CA
Nicole Storm Quitasol               31        F          Imperial Beach, CA
Michael Quitasol                       62        M         Stockton, CA
Steven Salika                            55        M         Santa Cruz, CA
Tia Salika-Adamic                     17        F          Santa Cruz, CA
Sumil Sandhu                           45        M         Half Moon Bay, CA
Fernisa Sison                            57        F          Stockton, CA
Ted Strom                                  62        M         Germantown, TN
Kristian Takvam                         34        M         San Francisco, CA
Wei Tan                                     26        F          Goleta, CA

Sheriff Brown praised the coordination and cooperation of all of the dive teams involved in the, “physically and emotionally challenging task” of searching and recovering the victims.  Dive teams and dive support included the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Los Angeles Port Police, Federal Bureau of Investigations, National Parks Service and the State Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Sheriff ended his remarks by expressing his sincere gratitude and appreciation for all of the incident partners in Unified Command, including the Coast Guard, Santa Barbara County Fire Department and the National Parks Service as well as the representatives and assistance provided by all of the other federal, state and local agencies that supported the incident.