Human Remains of Competitive Swimmer Apparently Killed by Predator Recovered from Pacific Coastline

Firefighters in the state of California have found the deceased of a competitive athlete on a shoreline north-west of Santa Cruz. This discovery comes nearly seven days after she was reported missing amid speculation that she was the victim of a shark.

The remains of Erica Fox were found on Saturday, as confirmed by her relatives. Fox, in her mid-fifties, was swimming with a pod of more than a twelve swimmers who set out from a popular swimming spot near Monterey, California on December 21st, but she did not come back to dry land. A passerby told officials that they observed a large shark with what looked like a human body in its mouth come out of the waves.

The incident and news of the predator attracted significant media focus and prompted extensive efforts from authorities to locate the missing woman. The following day, Fox’s husband and other members from her aquatic group held a memorial walk along the beach path. A family patriarch remembered her as an compassionate and gentle woman who was passionate about swimming and had competed in many endurance events, including the annual Escape From Alcatraz.

Search and rescue teams previously conducted a large-scale search and rescue operation involving numerous US Coast Guard vessels along with personnel from area fire and police departments. The Coast Guard suspended its mission for Fox after a 15-hour operation that scoured approximately dozens of miles of coastline.

Fire department personnel announced on that Saturday that they had located a person on Davenport beach. The Santa Cruz county sheriff’s office issued a statement the same day, citing an open case into the incident.

“This afternoon, at approximately 14:00 hours, a deceased individual was located in the sea south of Davenport Beach. Given the nearby location to the earlier shark attack case in the adjacent county, our office is working closely with the corresponding agency and the local police regarding the investigation,” the announcement said.

A fellow swimmer, she, described Erica as a friend and passionate athlete who found peace in the Pacific Ocean. She wrote that Fox and a friend began a practice of swimming every Sunday at that location long ago. She noted that Fox didn't require a book to tell her what she knew through experience: that ocean swimming was a healing activity for her well-being, an exploration as much as a reflective practice.

Rubin said that her friend had developed a close bond with the Pacific Ocean by getting into it—again and again, on choppy days and serene days, accumulating what could only be guessed as a lifetime of laps.

Additionally that the athlete “was aware of the dangers” of entering the water with a population of great white sharks, and would have disagreed with calling it an attack. Rather people to view it as an incident—natural predator behavior is just that.

While many species of marine predators live off the California coast, attacks on humans are very uncommon. Before this tragedy, there have been only a total of sixteen fatal shark incidents in California in the past 75 years.