Student diver feared lost

The Coast Guard suspended a search Monday night for a missing diver at Rosario Beach.

The Coast Guard suspended a search Monday night for a missing diver at Rosario Beach.

Shari Booth, a 19-year-old Walla Walla University student, disappeared while taking part in a scuba class at the university’s Rosario Marine Laboratory located on the Skagit County side of Deception Pass State Park.

The Coast Guard received a report of a missing diver at 2 p.m. Monday. Officials launched a extensive eight-hour search over approximately 20 square miles, but found no signs of the missing woman.

Local volunteer searchers were joined by the Coast Guard’s HH-65 rescue helicopter crew from Air Station Port Angeles, two 33-foot rescue boat crews from the Coast Guard Station in Bellingham and a Coast Guard Auxiliary rescue boat crew to search for the diver.

A rescue helicopter crew from Navy Air Station Whidbey Island also launched to assist in the search.

You can reach News-Times reporter Jessie Stensland at jstensland@whidbeynewstimes.com or call 675-6611.