How to Find Evidence in a Tailor-Made Environment

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The plan was that people on land would monitor the sonar. They would then guide Dave through his radio on where to look, or in this case, where to put out his hands and try to grab at something. However, it was very difficult. You can't like swim normally in tar. you can't really kick. So what we came up with is we had a 30- or 40-foot pole that the guys from the boat put in the tar. Once I submerged, I grabbed onto that pole and I would use that to pull myself down.

Sgt. David Mascarenas is the Dive Supervisor for the Los Angeles Police Department. He's been diving his whole life, and prides himself on never refusing a dive, no matter how treacherous. At least until the summer of 2013, when a murder investigation led him into the unusually murky waters of the La Brea tar pits.

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