Body of missing H.B. scuba diver found in pipe near El Segundo power plant
Searchers in Los Angeles County on Monday found the body of a 45-year-old Huntington Beach man who had disappeared a day earlier while scuba diving near a power plant in El Segundo.
Sheriff’s deputies recovered Jeff Tolly’s body at about 10:30 a.m. in a submerged pipe near the NRG Energy facility following an extensive search that began nearly 24 hours before.
The cause of Tolly’s death was not immediately known.
It is unclear how his body ended up in the pipe, which has been used as an intake and outtake pipe for the energy facility. Some divers swim into the pipe to look for lobsters, said Spencer Parker, an ocean lifeguard specialist with Los Angeles County lifeguards.
Tolly and a friend sailed a boat from Huntington Beach to El Segundo about 9 a.m. Sunday to go fishing, but Tolly told his friend he wanted to go for a dive first, Parker said.
The friend went off to fish after the two agreed they would meet in the same spot a half-hour later. However, when Tolly’s friend returned, Tolly was nowhere to be found.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Los Angeles County lifeguards and firefighters used boats, submarines and helicopters to search through the night.
Tolly was the president of Tolly Landscape in Orange. His Facebook page indicates he was married with three children.
Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
