Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove. Photo: Gene Giromini // Unsplash
Autopsy results have revealed further details in the death of Erica Fox. The experienced triathlete first went missing in December of last year at Lover’s Point in Pacific Grove, California.
Fox was last seen at a weekly swim with the Kelp Krawlers, a Monterey Bay open-water swimming group she co-founded. Witnesses reported seeing a large splash, with one claiming to have seen a shark breach the water with what appeared to be a human body in its mouth. The ensuing search yielded no results and was called off after a day. A week later, her body was found on a remote pocket beach with a “shark band” still attached to the ankle.
In early January, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office announced that a coroner had determined the cause of death to be “sharp and blunt force injuries and submersion in water due to a shark attack” and the manner of death was ruled an accident.
Now, an autopsy report obtained by the Monterey Herald has shed more light on the nature of those injuries. According to the Herald, the report stated that Fox’s fatal injury encircled her right knee, thighs and her abdomen. Her wetsuit and swimsuit were torn in areas that corresponded with the injuries, and the force of the bite fractured her pelvis and severed a major artery in her midsection.
“The only explanation we can come up with in cases like this is that the shark made a mistake. It mistook a person for a seal or a sea lion,” Chris Lowe, a marine biology professor and director of the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, told the Herald.
“This was a big shark,” he added. “I think she was probably knocked unconscious immediately. It was a horrible trauma.”
