The Tennessee man who died during a diving expedition in the Broad River on Saturday had been diving more than two decades and was with his stepson, a Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office report said.

Brian Owens, 57, of Johnson City, Tenn., died Saturday in what an autopsy showed was an accidental drowning. Owens was diving for shark teeth in the Broad River with his stepson and two other divers as customers on a Sea Island Divers charter, the Sheriff’s Office report said.

Large, prehistoric megladon teeth are a prize for divers who brave murky Lowcountry rivers. Large fossilized teeth in good condition sell for hundreds of dollars.

Sea Island Divers, a Lady’s Island dive shop, has closed indefinitely, a statement posted to Sea Island Divers Facebook page said Sunday.

Owens was a certified diver with more than 25 years experience, his stepson, Spencer Galloway, told deputies. Attempts to reach members of Owens’ family were unsuccessful Monday.

Sea Island Divers owner Jason Owen led the trip Saturday. In the Facebook post Sunday, Owen thanked first responders and bystanders at the boat landing and fishing pier who offered help.

He declined comment when reached Monday.

“Our hearts and souls go out to the family of the diver that was lost,” he wrote on the Sea Island Divers’ Facebook page. “Words alone are not enough to express my pain and sympathies.”

The group, which included Jason Owen and the four other divers, launched from Broad River Landing in a 21-foot pontoon boat and began diving about half a mile west of the Broad River Bridge at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, the Sheriff’s Office report said. Owen, the dive shop owner, was in the water about 35 minutes before returning to the boat and waiting for the other divers to surface.

At about 1 p.m., Brian Owens surfaced and was face down in the water, Owen told deputies. Owen jumped in and grabbed Owens but couldn’t lift him into the boat, yelling to people on the pier to call 911 as the men and boat floated under the bridge.

Someone in another boat helped pull Jason Owen and Brian Owens from the water before deputies and Burton Fire District EMTs arrived on another boat. Once ashore, Brian Owens was taken to Beaufort Memorial Hospital.

The other three divers on the charter, including Galloway, surfaced to see rescue boats and weren’t immediately aware Brian Owens had drowned, the report said. Galloway told deputies he had been diving in about 40 feet of water.

Aaron Youmans, a contractor from Charleston diving with the group alongside friend Jeremy Spencer, said the current was strong Saturday in his first time dive of the Broad River. He added he has been in faster water and preferred the strong current.

The pull was noticeable entering and exiting the water, Youmans said, but on the bottom the current was more calm. Visibility was 3 to 5 feet Saturday and better than normal because of the sandy bottom where the group dove, Youmans said.

“Sometimes it’s zero,” he said. “You can put your hand in front of your face and can’t see it.”

The trip was Youmans’ first time diving with Jason Owen and Sea Island Divers, having connected with the dive shop on Facebook. Youmans didn’t know Brian Owens and Galloway before Saturday, he said.

Brian Owens was fairly quiet during the ride to the dive spot, Youmans said. Youmans was on the bottom when Owens was pulled from the water and didn’t speculate as to what might have happened.

“Things can go really wrong really fast when you’re diving,” said Youmans, who began diving five years ago before a trip to Australia.

Youmans was the last diver to surface, having swapped tanks for a second dive. The dive boat was gone and rescue boats swarmed the water, he said.

One of the boats picked Youmans up. Spencer swam in his dive gear back to the landing and had to dump his weight belt, Youmans said.

Brian Owens’ SCUBA equipment and vest were removed when he was pulled from the water and have not been found. A S.C. Law Enforcement Division helicopter searched the water for the equipment Saturday, Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Bob Bromage said Monday.

The Sheriff’s Office investigation is still open pending toxicology reports but points to accidental drowning as Owens’ cause of death, Bromage said.