Swedish diver Volker Bassen who had earlier in the week stated he could retrieve the bodies of Mariam Kighenda and her four-year-old daughter from the Indian ocean within two hours joined the search team at Likoni on Friday at around 11am.
Bassen was accompanied by three members of his team.
The four-man team searched within the ocean at the Likoni ferry channel in an effort to locate Kighenda's car.
K24 reported that the team used a four-seater motorboat equipped with screens to monitor echo signals.
After approximately two hours of the search, Bassen took a lunch break at around 1pm and resumed the search mission at around 3pm.
Although Bassen was not able to locate the bodies, K24 reported that he found a spot 60 meters deep in the ocean where he suspects the car together with the bodies may be. He also pointed out that the Kenya Navy had helped him in identifying the spot.
He further requested for the suspension of ferry operations for an hour so that he could narrow down his search, a request which was turned down.
Bassen added that he was planning to travel out of Kenya on Saturday and would therefore not be available for the subsequent search missions.
“Tomorrow [Saturday, October 5], I will be travelling out of Kenya hence I won’t be able to take part in the subsequent search operation,” he told K24.
Bassen nonetheless acknowledged that he underestimated the search mission.