Authorities in California say a body has been found near the site of a suspected shark attack that left a swimmer missing in Monterey Bay last week. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office said Sunday that the body was recovered from the ocean south of Davenport Beach, ABC News reports. The missing swimmer, 55-year-old Erica Fox, vanished just after noon on Dec. 21 while in the water off Lovers Point in Pacific Grove, according to a joint statement from the Coast Guard and the cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey.
Fox's father told KSBW that the family has identified the recovered body as hers, citing the clothing. Her husband of 30 years, Jean-Francois Vanreusel, told the San Jose Mercury News that she was still wearing an electromagnetic "shark band" meant to deter shark attacks.
After Fox went missing, two witnesses on the shore told authorities she may have encountered a shark. A Coast Guard official said one witness reported seeing a shark with a body in its mouth before the animal went underwater. Vanreusel, who was swimming around 100 yards behind Fox, did not witness the attack. "She didn't want to live in fear," he told the Mercury News. "She lived her life fully."
Fox was co-founder of the Kelp Krawlers swim club. Another member, Steve Bruemmer, suffered severe leg injuries in a shark attack in 2022. On Sunday, he spoke to a group that walked along the Lovers Point bluffs, tracing the route of Fox's last swim, the Mercury News reports. "I was also bitten by a shark, and I can tell you that it doesn't hurt," he said. "I don't understand why, but it's not physically painful to be badly bitten. So I believe that in her final moments, Erica was not suffering in pain. And I hope that that can be of some comfort to people." He added: "There are also lessons, things we know that we're reminded of in moments like this, and one is that tomorrow is not guaranteed."
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