The grisly discovery prompted a massive search of the area. Photo: Mike Batterham/Gold Coast Bulletin
Last week, a 16-year-old surfer ran into something awful when he fell off a wave. A dead body.
According to the Gold Coast Bulletin and a police representative, the teen “caught a wave and as he comes up, he’s touched something which felt like hair. He then grabbed at the item and when he pulled up the item he saw the face of someone at which point he panicked, let go of the body and returned to shore. He later returned to the water with a friend to try and find the body but they couldn’t locate it and contacted police.”
The grisly discovery was made near Palm Beach, off Queensland, Australia at around 6:30 am on Friday morning. When police did a search of the area later on that morning, they weren’t able to find a body, and no reports of any missing persons matched the description the teen gave officers. He said the body he found was a man in his late 20s with dark hair.
Earlier this morning,”Gold Coast Water Police Sergeant Tony Nelson said on the day of the discovery,” some young fellas were going for a morning surf here at Palm Beach. One of them had just caught a wave and fell off his board and when he was coming to the surface he felt something in his hand. He grabbed hold of it and when he pulled it up it appeared to be a deceased person. He had grabbed it by the hair. He was quite shocked. He let it go and it disappeared from view.”
While no one else could corroborate the teen’s story, police took him at his word. “(He) reached down, grabbed it, pulled it to the surface and it was a human head,” said Gold Coast Water Police Senior Sergeant Gavin Peachey. “That’s what he believes–there’s nothing to confirm that at the moment.”
The search has since been called off, but the mystery remains. Police in the area are urging anyone with information to to make contact.
