Tulsa Woman Missing In Florida

The search continues for a missing diver with Tulsa ties. The search is just off the coast of New Port Richey, Florida. <br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the US Coast Guard hasn't stopped

Tuesday, July 11th 2006, 9:54 pm

By: News On 6

The search continues for a missing diver with Tulsa ties. The search is just off the coast of New Port Richey, Florida.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the US Coast Guard hasn't stopped looking since Monday afternoon, but so far has found no sign of 28 year old Ashley Mauldin, a former Tulsan who recently moved to Florida.

She is a newly certified scuba diver, and Monday was only her first or second open water dive. She was diving 14 miles off the coast, on an artificial reef created from sunken army tanks, when she went down and never resurfaced.

Mauldin graduated with a marketing degree from the University of Tulsa in 2001. She attended school under her maiden name, Ashley Martin. She married her husband Michael in Tulsa, and together they have a stepdaughter Katie.

They were snorkeling while Ashley was picked things from the ocean floor. The Coast Guard reports that at the time she was diving, the sea was calm and the water was 85 degrees. She was wearing a wet suit, but without fresh water, in the heat, it would be unlikely she could have survived this long.

Just in case, the search area had expanded to 250 square miles, to account for currents that might have washed her far where she started.

Mauldin's parents from Tulsa have gone to Florida to be closer to the search. She went down with 40 minutes of air. Divers have since searched the area without success. She was a former employee of Price Waterhouse Coopers, and Cox Communications, but moved to Florida about a year ago to manage a housing company. Her clients and neighbors there can't believe what's happened.

Ashley's family is holding onto hope that somehow she might be alive, but authorities do not believe she is, though they continue to search.