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Body of missing diver recovered off Kailua

Christopher Nee, an experienced free-diver who helped find remains of a Marine helicopter crash in the 1980s, died this weekend while diving in Kailua Bay.

"It hurt," said Greg Nee of his brother’s death, "but it didn’t hurt as much as if he had been hit by a car or something like that. He was in the water. He was where he always wanted to be."

"He spent his whole life in that bay," said Nee by phone from his Portland, Ore., home.

Firefighters and lifeguards recovered Nee’s body at about 10:20 a.m. Sunday in water about 20 feet deep, roughly 400 yards from Castles Beach in Kailua.

Nee, 54, was reported missing Saturday night, prompting an overnight search by the Coast Guard.

Fire Department Capt. Terry Seelig said Nee had gone free-diving with a friend at about 4 p.m. Saturday. Free-divers do not use equipment such as oxygen tanks. Nee went in with a mask, snorkel and spear.

They agreed to return to shore at 6 p.m. and entered the ocean from Kapoho Point on the north end of Kailua.

Seelig said the friend couldn’t find Nee when he returned at the agreed time and eventually went to Nee’s house, thinking he may have gotten a ride from someone else. He called for help at about 9:45 p.m.

About 18 firefighters searched along the shoreline by boat and helicopter for about two hours Saturday night but suspended the operation because of darkness. The Coast Guard searched overnight, Seelig said.

Firefighters returned at 5:30 a.m. and were joined by lifeguards several hours later. At about 10:20 a.m., firefighters in a helicopter spotted an unusual shape off Castles.

Lifeguards and firefighters dived down and found Nee’s body on the seabed. He was brought to shore and pronounced dead at 10:45 a.m.

Greg Nee, who grew up with his younger brother in Kailua, said Christopher Nee had been diving and squidding in Kailua Bay since he was in elementary school.

"The ocean was everything to him," Nee said.

When a Marine helicopter crashed in the bay in 1988, killing the three onboard, Christopher Nee recovered some of the pilot’s belongings while diving and took authorities back to the area to recover more items, his brother said.

Born in Salem, Ore., Nee came to Hawaii when he was 2 and graduated from Kailua High School. He worked as a chef at a few hotels and at one time had a master pilot’s license, but wasn’t working recently because of a hip injury.

Alika Nee, Christopher Nee’s nephew, said his outgoing uncle loved to share the fish he caught with friends and family, had worked on commercial fishing boats in the Bering Sea and once had his own catering company.

His uncle was known on East Oahu as an excellent deep-water scuba diver and free-diver, said Nee, 33, who moved to Portland from Kailua a few years ago.

Nee’s only child, an adult daughter who lives in Kaneohe, was distraught over his death, he said.

His uncle had a rough life, at times running into trouble with the law, but died pursuing his passion.

"I was actually happy that he passed away doing what he did at the beach he loved, the beach he grew up on," Alika Nee said.