Volunteer, Deep-Water Divers Resume Search For Johnson City Woman

The search for a missing woman last seen at her Holston Lake boat slip resumed this afternoon with the assistance of two deep-water, commercial divers who volunteered for the job.
The divers, from Blacksburg, Va., have worked together before and were asked to help with the search by a friend who lives in the Tri-Cities area, the divers told the Bristol Herald Courier between search dives today.
Alice Bachman, 55, of Johnson City, has been missing since Tuesday. After nearly two days of searching unsuccessfully with divers, dragging equipment and submersible cameras, recovery teams pulled back at 12:15 a.m. Thursday. Because the lake depth in the area was at least 200 feet, rescue crews said, they would need the assistance of deep-water divers.
The friend of the two volunteers who are doing the search today also is deep-water certified, but his equipment is in California for a job he was doing there. He is, however, assisting today’s search operations, the divers said.
The men are combing a circular area of the lake around the boat slip, in dives that last about 20 minutes each. Because of the depth, following each dive, they must decompress for more than an hour before they return to the effort.
In addition to the deep water, the searches are complicated by an abundance of submerged trees and stumps in area, guidelines for the docks and slips, and silt, the divers said.