DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News spoke exclusively to a couple on vacation who say they were the first to notice a metro area man known for playing his bagpipes unresponsive in the ocean.
Henry Frantz of Decatur died during a scuba diving trip.
The couple told Channel 2’s Tom Jones that they wanted to let his family know rescue crews did everything they could to save him.
“Forgive me if I get a little bit emotional,” Samantha Small said via a Zoom interview.
She told Jones that she was thinking about how the 74-year-old Frantz went on vacation and never came home.
“It was just a really tragic situation,” Samantha Small said.
Sam and Michael Small shared pictures of themselves at the pool at the Wailea Resort on March 10. That’s when Sam noticed a man in the water, in a cove.
“And he wasn’t moving, and I think that was alarming to me too,” Samantha Small said.
She told her husband.
“I immediately saw him in the water,” Michael Small said.
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He told Jones that he ran to get a towel attendant, who radioed for help.
The fire department and a dive team got there quickly. But the conditions were very dangerous.
“The waves were so rough, and it was so windy,” Michael Small said.
Still, rescue crews went in.
Sam Small said they first used a jet ski and a bodyboard to get Frantz out of the rough conditions.
“They immediately jumped on top of him, and they were giving him CPR,” Samantha Small said.
They couldn’t save him.
Maui police said Frantz was on a scuba diving trip. Officers say he told his group he was exhausted and disappeared.
Frantz was well known in the metro area for playing his bagpipes.
Samantha Small went on social media trying to find his identity.
“Your post happened to come up,” Samantha Small told Jones.
She saw Jones’ story about Frantz’s fatal scuba diving trip and how family members discovered the skeletal remains of his 28-year-old son in a tree house in his backyard.
“I mean, I can’t even imagine what that family is going through. That’s so awful,” Samantha Small said.
Frantz’ son disappeared 4 years ago.
“It sounds like it would be something you see on TV, right?” Michael Small said.
The Smalls want Frantz’ family to know that so many went above and beyond to try and save him.
“I’m hoping that in doing this that we can give his family some sense of closure,” Samantha Small said.
The Smalls said the water conditions were very dangerous that day, and they don’t know why anyone was out there.
Maui police say they continue to investigate this incident.
The DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s office says it doesn’t suspect foul play in Frantz’ son’s death and that it couldn’t determine a cause of death.
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