FWC investigators concluded one of their own killed a Keys snorkeler. Was there a cover-up?
Two years ago, U.S. Navy veteran and soon-to-be father Devin Michael James Ordway was snorkeling near Key West on the lookout for spiny lobsters.
He never surfaced. After a frantic hours-long search that included his friends, police, state fish and wildlife officers and the U.S. Coast Guard, Ordway’s body was found on the ocean floor, not far from where he had been swimming.
His cause of death: a boat propeller strike to the head.
The two investigators with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state cops on the waterways, concluded one of their own officers was to blame in the death of the 27-year-old Ordway.
But the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the state agents brought in by FWC top leadership to investigate, found there were several boats in the water where Ordway was and thus couldn’t definitively say who was responsible for his death.
The two FWC detectives, who have more than 30 years of combined experience investigating boating accidents, say FDLE botched the case, according to FWC emails reviewed by the Herald, along with the investigators’ report, filed to rebut the FDLE report.
They allege the FWC covered up the case to protect its own, citing evidence they uncovered during their investigation — computer data from the officer’s boat, from Ordway’s boat and from the boat traveling with him, plus surveillance footage from a camera on land. This evidence contradicts key points of the FDLE report, they say in their report.
The investigators’ conclusion? FWC Officer Alexander Allen, 28, patrolling in his boat, accidentally ran over and killed Ordway.
“The factual evidence made clear the involvement of FWC Patrol Vessel 131976 operated by FWC Officer Allen in relation to the marine death of Mr. Ordway,” wrote FWC Lt. Joshua Peters, who, along with FWC investigator Glen Way, drafted the report.
Neither spoke to the Herald for this article.
The controversy over the investigation has devolved into a rancorous work environment for the veteran investigators, with Way noting in an email to his boss Peters, “There seems to be a cancer within our ranks that thinks that if they ignore the truth, perhaps it will go away.”
The FWC released a statement to the Herald denying any special handling of the investigation. The agency said it sought an outside law-enforcement agency — FDLE — to take over the probe to prevent partiality in the case.
“The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) did not cover up anything regarding the investigation into the death of Mr. Devin Ordway,” the statement reads. “In fact, the agency took proactive measures immediately following the incident to prevent any impression of a conflict of interest.”
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement didn’t answer the Herald’s queries about its investigation. Allen, the FWC officer, didn’t respond to two emails from the Herald seeking comment.
Controversy follows flap over Pino investigation
The conflicting accounts of the snorkeler’s death come as the FWC has faced heat over its investigation into George Pino, a prominent Doral real estate broker who rammed his boat carrying 12 teenage girls into a concrete channel marker on a clear day in Biscayne Bay, killing one girl and causing traumatic brain injury to another.
Initially, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office charged Pino with three careless boating misdemeanors in the Sept. 4, 2022, crash, outraging the girls’ families and three eyewitnesses interviewed by the Herald.
Three weeks ago, however, prosecutors charged him with felony vessel homicide after a first responder on the scene said Pino appeared intoxicated when he came upon him in the water. The Miami-Dade Fire Rescue firefighter came forward after reading the Herald articles.
READ MORE: New witness leads to felony homicide charge 2 years after boat crash killed Lourdes girl
Pino has pleaded not guilty to the felony charge, which carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine if Pino were to be convicted.
What led to snorkeler’s death
According to the FDLE report and the report the two FWC investigators submitted to dispute the FDLE’s conclusions, here is what happened on July 25, 2022, the day Ordway died:
Ordway planned to snorkel from his 20-foot Mako with friends who would snorkel and scuba dive from a 19-foot Carolina Skiff off Key Haven near Key West. They were checking out the best spots for Florida lobster, two days before the start of lobster miniseason.
The two groups headed out to look for lobsters in an area they called “the hole,” part of a canal where they had been lobstering for years during miniseason.
The Carolina Skiff anchored on the north side of the hole. Two of the boat’s passengers jumped in the water and began probing the canal’s edge looking for lobsters. One was scuba diving with a tank, another was snorkeling.
A little while later, Ordway arrived on the Mako with a friend and his friend’s children. He became concerned over how long the scuba diver from the Carolina Skiff was below the water’s surface and snorkeled to look for him.
Both vessels displayed dive flags, according to Peters’ and Way’s report.
After finding the diver and getting him back onto the Carolina Skiff, Ordway began snorkeling back to his boat.
As he was swimming, about 12:25 p.m., FWC Officer Allen arrived in his patrol boat, traveling at a low speed. He conducted a resources check on the Carolina Skiff, asking for safety equipment like flares and life preservers, as well as the vessel’s registration. He also asked the people on the Carolina Skiff if there were any divers in the water, and they told him no, according to the FDLE report.
Shortly thereafter, Allen headed toward the Mako, again traveling at a low speed.
Using the data from the Automatic Vehicle Locator computer system from Allen’s patrol boat, the two FWC investigators concluded that Allen piloted his boat on the east side of the canal to reach the Mako. Ordway was snorkeling back to the Mako in the same area, given where his body was found hours later.
The FDLE report notes that Peters and Way submitted the Automatic Vehicle Locator data, but the FDLE report did not make any conclusions about the route Allen took that day.
One of the people in the Mako told FDLE investigators that he recalled seeing Ordway snorkeling back to his boat along the east side of the canal as Allen’s vessel stop on the Carolina Skiff was ending, the FDLE report said.
After Allen finished inspecting the Carolina Skiff, the boat headed north and on the west side of the canal, away from Ordway’s swimming path, Peters and Way said in their report, using the Carolina Skiff’s GPS data as proof.
Around 12:53 p.m., Allen piloted his boat alongside the Mako. He asked if there was a diver in the water. The man on the Mako who was with his children told him Ordway was in the water, the FDLE report said. Not seeing anyone, Allen and the man began looking for Ordway. They couldn’t find him.
At 1:30 p.m., a “concerned family member” of Ordway’s called the Coast Guard, according to the FDLE report.
At 6:03 p.m., Monroe County Sheriff’s Office divers found Ordway’s body at the bottom of the canal’s eastern boundary, between where the Carolina Skiff and Mako were anchored earlier in the day. His mask was knocked off his head upon impact, and it sunk to the bottom, Peters and Way wrote in their report:
“The decedent sunk near the mask and was located face down.”
Where the findings differ
According to the FDLE report, investigators couldn’t determine which boat struck Ordway because there were five additional unidentified vessels in the area when Ordway and his friends were in the water. Those boats were traveling west to east, FDLE said.
“There is no forensic evidence identifying or linking any specific vessel with the blunt force (propeller) injury,” FDLE Special Agent Millard Quad wrote in the report.
The two FWC investigators dispute this. In their report, they concluded the canal Ordway and his friends swam in that day is buffered by shallow hard bottom and seagrass flats; boats would have run aground if they traversed them. The Carolina Skiff and Mako were anchored on the deeper edges of the canal.
The boats the FDLE referred to, photographed from a camera located at the College of the Florida Keys in Key West, were crossing the area north of the canal in deeper water, the FWC investigators concluded.
The two FWC investigators also said the canal has one point of ingress and egress and can’t be crossed east to west, or west to east, as it’s too shallow.
Further, the wound on Ordway’s head was a single smooth laceration with no jagged edges, meaning to the seasoned investigators that it was caused by a boat propeller rotating at a slow speed, as Allen’s boat was.
If the boat had been operating at a high rate of speed, Ordway’s head would have been left with multiple lacerations, Peters and Way stated.
Their report includes a graphic photograph of Ordway’s head showing the gash, as well as photos of marine mammals that had been hit by boats traveling at a high rate of speed. The marine mammals in the photos had multiple prop scars on their bodies.
Peters and Way also noted the Carolina Skiff should be excluded because it was traveling away from the direction Ordway was swimming, according to its GPS data. And the Carolina Skiff’s prop blades were dinged and had rough edges, which would have caused a messier type of wound, they noted.
That leaves only the FWC patrol boat, the investigators concluded, documenting Allen’s path through his boat’s onboard computer data, and that his boat’s props were in good condition.
“Officer Allen’s Patrol Vessel’s [Automatic Vehicle Location Computer System] shows he traveled atop of the decedent’s location inside the window of the propeller strike identified by [the FDLE report],” Peters and Way wrote. “The propeller of the FWC Patrol Vessel can cause the smooth laceration found on the decedent. It cannot be excluded.”
FWC investigators recommend officer be charged
The two investigators ended their report saying the boat operated by Allen caused Ordway’s death.
Peters and Way recommended that Allen be charged with reckless or careless operation of a vessel, a second-degree misdemeanor that carries a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail. They also alleged he violated Coast Guard navigation rules by failing to look out and to maintain a safe speed.
The FWC didn’t follow their recommendations, saying in its statement to the Herald, “... it was not appropriate for the FWC to direct or insert itself into the FDLE investigation.”
Allen, who has been with the FWC for three years, remains on duty, and has not been disciplined or received retraining as a result of the incident, FWC spokesperson Rob Klepper told the Miami Herald.
According to the FDLE report, agents did not interview Allen during their investigation.
“Officer Allen did not provide a statement to investigators relating to the facts of this investigation upon the advice of his attorney,” wrote Quad, the FDLE investigator.
FDLE said it’s not expert in boating cases
Initially, the two investigators recommended to their bosses that FDLE take over the investigation so the FWC wasn’t investigating one of its own.
FWC leadership agreed. But when FDLE concluded its probe in February 2023 — seven months after the accident and after determining they couldn’t isolate one boat that caused Ordway’s death — the two investigators strongly objected and wrote their own report.
They pointed to the computer data from Allen’s boat showing the boat was above where the body had been found; the GPS data from the Carolina Skiff, showing the boat was traveling away from Ordway; and the photographic evidence from land showing the other boats were north of the canal in deeper water.
Peters spoke out during an August 2023 meeting with FDLE Special Agent in Charge Joshua Quigley, according to a Sept. 12, 2023, email he wrote to his boss, Capt. David Dipre:
“I expressed that I never would have referred this case to FDLE if I did not have factual evidence that the FWC boat operated by Officer Allen caused the death of Mr. Ordway,” Peters said in the email.
Peters added that FDLE should have consulted an outside expert in boating death investigations before concluding its report. In fact, FDLE has acknowledged that it’s not an expert in investigating boating deaths.
When the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office was considering a third party, including FDLE, to review the FWC’s findings in the crash involving Pino, FDLE agents were “very quick to point out that FDLE is not an expert when it comes to these types of investigations,” according to a July 2023 email sent from FWC Major Alberto Maza, the head of FWC’s South Florida operations, to Col. Brian Smith, the FWC’s director of law enforcement.
The FWC, in its statement, said it chose FDLE because it investigates cases where a police officer is possibly responsible for a death or injury of a person.
“Agency leadership felt it was more appropriate to have an independent agency, rather than the officer’s coworkers, investigate the incident,” the agency said in the Herald statement.
“Within 24 hours of the accident, FWC Lt. Joshua Peters and Investigator Glen Way presented their preliminary findings to FDLE and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and remained available for questions and further information throughout FDLE’s investigation,” the FWC statement said. ”FDLE investigators had full access to the FWC’s case file and investigators.”
Peters, however, said in his email to his boss that FDLE left out from its final report key information from his and Way’s investigation that refuted the FDLE’s findings.
“I found the report to be lacking information and a conclusion,” Peters wrote to Dipre.
‘Family has no closure’
The investigators’ report isn’t part of the official case file, and the two investigators have accused the FWC of trying to keep their findings from the public — and Ordway’s loved ones.
The Miami Herald obtained their report through a public records request.
“To date the family has no closure. Ofc. Allen has no closure. Inv. Way and I have no closure. Our case files remain redacted and unopen for public inspection,” Peters wrote in his email to Dipre.
In the meantime, Peters and Way unsuccessfully sought legal whistle-blower protection from their agency’s Office of Inspector General and the FDLE because they feel they have lost the trust of their peers and the agency’s leadership.
“Due to the lack of transparency by our agency, Inv. Way and I are now facing animosity from our co-workers. This was confirmed by you yesterday. I know this is due to them simply not knowing the truth,” Peters wrote in his email to Dipre.
In the email Way wrote to Peters, where he said there was a ‘cancer within our ranks,’ he revealed the stress this incident has taken on him: “I have done my best to look myself in the mirror with honesty and know that I did the ‘right thing.’ And yet I feel like I am on an island.”
FWC settles with family
Ordway’s girlfriend, Michelle Demers, 30, was pregnant with Ordway’s child at the time of his death and is the mother of their now 2-year-old son.
“I delivered the Death Notification to Mrs. Demers. I heard her screams,” Peters wrote in his email to Dipre. “Inv. Way and I interviewed the family and watched them slowly figure out that a Law Enforcement Officer ran over and killed their loved one. I have never been looked at with that type of disgust.”
Demers sued the FWC in March 2023, citing Ordway’s wrongful death. While the settlement isn’t a public record, Florida law limits damages recovered from a government agency to $200,000.
Court records indicate the FWC provided Demers’ legal team with a slew of documents — though it didn’t initially hand over Peters’ and Way’s report until a judge ordered all documents be turned over. The agency turned over the investigators’ report after the judge granted the FWC’s request to keep the documents confidential.
Miami attorney Bernardo Pimentel, who represented Demers, said Ordway’s family is frustrated with the investigation’s outcome.
“This is not justice,” Pimentel said. “This is taking what you can get because you have no other choice. The FWC was not held accountable to the extent that they should have been.”
The FWC, in its statement, said it sent the FDLE report and the investigators’ report to the Monroe County State Attorney’s Office, which decides whether to charge someone with a crime.
Dennis Ward, the Monroe state attorney, said that given the FDLE report’s findings, compounded by the conflicting findings by Peters and Way, a possible prosecution against Allen was too difficult to pursue.
“There wasn’t a reasonable likelihood of conviction,” Ward said.
‘A brother, son, soon to be father’
Ordway, a Volusia County native who loved ones described as an avid diver and fisherman, was on vacation in Key West when he was killed. He was a lineman for Pike Corp., a power company based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, which has a division in Pembroke Pines.
In a Facebook post made in August, Ordway’s sister, Gabrielle Parnell, paid tribute to her brother.
“The sounds of the helicopters flying over head haunts me, frantically searching the water with every ounce of hope that maybe he by some chance he got lost,” Parnell said in the post. “the sounds [of] rescue divers surfacing with his body and shouting his name, I will relive for the rest of my life.
“To them he was just a diver on vacation, to us he was a brother, a son, a soon to be father, a friend.”
This story was originally published November 20, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
