Mario Sartirani


Mario Sartirani, was a 44 year old  Home Decorator and with his wife and children lived at 20 Via Rosseli, Seriate, Bergamo, Italy.

Mario loved scuba diving, it was his passion, his life and was also his Death.
As a member of the Bergamo Diving Club and affiliated to all European D.C's, he was excited to join the group who were to explore  new dive areas in the Philippines.
The group, consisting of twelve people, arrived on  Dalupiri/San Antonio Island, Samar, on the 22nd of Febuary 1992.

After 10 days of discovery diving off  the outlying Islands in the area, the group were thrilled that they had found what they were looking for and discussed with the owners of the Flying Dog Resort to set up a Club base nearby and contracted rates to send 2000 plus Italian, Austrian and Swiss Divers to the Island over the following year.  Everyone knew that the Island would have employment and Tourists were going to go there and it was generally a happy event and time.

During their stay, the equipmant was looked after and bottles re-filled by an Austrian Diver,  Mr Fritz Vogel, who was setting up a small Diving School nearby. Although a Dive Instructor, Mr Vogel never once accompanied the group on their daily excursions.

On their last day on the Island they had decided not to dive but to relax and to pack away their equipment.
At that Time and unknown to the group's organizers, it was suggested by the Austrian, Mr Fritz Vogel, that they visit the northern part of the Island where he said he'd seen some particular shells.
Most of the Divers said no. But Mario and two others decided to get up early that morning and just for an hour go to see the shells.
Guided by Mr Vogel, they called for the boat. Mr Vogel instructed the boatmen where to go and 20 minutes later the three Divers  slipped off the boat above the corals and sand at an area called Lagbangan, near the village of Venisitahan.
They spread out in a line and in calm crystal clear waters of  3 to 5 meters, moved forward heading north, the sun was already high.

Several moments later a small canoe fishing boat with a man and a boy left the beach at a point north of the Diver's position and headed directly out to sea to a position about 130  meters ahead of the three Divers.
As the Divers got nearer to the canoe the fisherman onboard, a Mr Noynay, threw a bottle of lighted home made dynamite, obtained on the Island at Burabod, directly at the oncoming Divers.
The charge entered the water and landed on the back of Mario Sartirani and blasted the back of his head.

We together with others, have personally inspected the exact point of the incident and at the same time of day, it was 9.10am, during similar sea and weather conditions.
At that position  an oncomming Diver in about 4 meters of water can be seen from a distance further than dynamite can be thrown.
In other words, it's not easy to make the mistake that the fisherman declared he had made, ie, he thought he saw a fish.

Mario was rushed to the local hospital but was dead on arrival.

We have a copy of the death certificate;
San Antonio Local Civil Registry number 92-07  Signed by Gilbert Martinez and Cecilia Barcenas and dated March 4 1992.

The cause of death: Cardiopulmonary Arrest secondary to Massive Cerebral Hemorrage due to Dynamite explosion.
This was attested by the Medical Officer, Maritess Catindig MD.
Mario's two companions were treated for shock and severe ear damage.

We now know that apart from the Mysterious Mr Vogel, another Austrian  was on the Island at the same time.
The "other" Austrian known as "Mr Walter"   is said was once connected to the N.P.A  insurgency rebels in Samer.
Mr  Walter is witnessed as saying, "Mr Fritz goes too far, we never did anything like that! Be carefull of Mr Fritz!"
Although the two Austrians never ever talked to each other they seemed to know who or what each was.
We are looking into this deeply as we feel that two "Strange" Austrians on the Island at the same time as the incident and being the only other foreigners present was quite a coincidence.
And of course the Divers we "Persueded" to go to that area on that day by Mr Fritz.

Mr Walter is not easy to find, some say he is in Japan and others say he is dead and we believe the Austrian authorities are looking for him too.

Mr Fritz Vogel on the other hand is often in Austria and S.E.Asia and there mostly in the Philippines and sooner or later we will track him down with some questions.

Of course the biggest question is;  If this incident was NOT a pure Accident, why would a fisherman deliberately kill a Diver?

Possibly an answer lies in a study of the sea bottom where the incident took place and the shells that the Divers were looking for.
The three Divers had very little time and had seen corals enough over the last 9 days so they were only interested in the shells they were looking for and nothing else. 
Therefore they were moving faster over the bottom than usual. 
Therefore it's possible that the fisherman threw the dynamite not to kill them but meaning the blast to FALL SHORT.
Why would he do that?
There can be only one answer; To frighten the Divers away!
Why frighten the Divers away?
To cancel the newly signed contract and stop Tourists from going there! Which in fact the incident did do.
Why has all the evidence of the event gone missing from the Police records?
Why was the Fisherman who threw the dynamite set free?
And why have so many people done so much to pretend the incident never even happened?
Why did the Department of Tourism not investigate the incident yet investigated lesser and uncomfirmed illegal activities?
Or indeed why didn't any Government department local or otherwise never enquire into the matter?

The Incident in fact is an enigma and unlike any other such "accident" has just too many questions to be answered and if indeed it was an accident then why not say so instead of hiding it away?
In the meantime Mario is Dead and seemingly for nothing, such a waste, such disrespect.
We are therefor turning over all info on the incident, as it comes in, to the Insurers of Mario Sartirani who will eventually decide what action should be taken and hopefully this enigma will be finally solved if only for the memory of a dead Diver.

We have heaps of notations, statements and E Mail messages refering to this incident but prefer not to publish them until we have notarized confirmation to do so.

The Certificate of Death is on very bad quality paper but successfully scanned and can be viewed by clicking here.

We also hope to place a photograph of the Late Mario Sartirani on this page.

Those of you who are interested in the further developements of this story should BOOKMARK this page as it will be seperately updated as and when news comes in, or as soon as we can get statements from the Elusive Mr Vogel or others.

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