A California swimmer believed to be the victim of a shark attack has been found dead
For days, divers scoured the waters off Lovers Point in hopes of finding traces of Erica Fox, the missing swimmer believed to have been killed by a shark on December 21.
An intensive multi-agency search came to an end last weekend when rescue teams found Fox’s body six days after he disappeared in Monterey Bay, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Monday night. Fox was identified based on his possessions and remains, including a shark-deterrent ankle strap.
“Erica was doing what she loved – connected to the sea, living in her place. That’s important. She didn’t lose her life out of fear, but out of love,” Juan Heredia, a rescue diver who tirelessly searched for Fox, wrote in a statement.
A well-known figure in the open water swimming community, Fox was the founder of the Kelp Krawlers, a Pacific Grove-based group that swims year-round in Monterey Bay.
A friend and fellow swimmer, Sara Rubin, was among a group of 15 swimmers present when Fox disappeared. Rubin later wrote about the incident in the local news outlet Monterey County Now.
Rubin wrote: “A harbor seal swam under me for about a minute as I approached the beach, one of those human interactions we enjoy. “Like other swimmers, I had no idea disaster was happening, just the sound of my strokes.”
While the group was in the water, two witnesses reported the incident on the beach around noon, telling Pacific Grove police that the swimmer might have encountered a shark, department officials said. When Rubin and the others returned to shore, they realized that Fox was missing.
Police and firefighters from Pacific Grove and Monterey quickly began a search and rescue operation, supported by the US Coast Guard, the Monterey County Sheriff’s office, California State Parks and multiple aircraft and ships, authorities said. Beaches in Pacific Grove and Monterey were closed for days as a precaution.
Despite more than 15 hours of searching an area of approximately 84 square miles, crews were unable to locate Fox, and the active search was called off later that day, according to police.
Divers, including Heredia and Fox’s husband, Jean-François Vanreusel, continued to search the rocky shore until Fox’s remains were found by law enforcement on Dec. 27 a few miles north of Lovers Point. Cal Fire crews used a rope system to retrieve the body of the swimmer, who was wearing a black and blue wet suit, from a remote area of the beach south of Davenport, according to officials.
“Today, at approximately 2:00 p.m., a body was found in the ocean south of Davenport Beach,” the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. “Due to the proximity of the shark attack victim in Monterey County, our agency is working with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and the Pacific Grove Police Department on the recovery.”
Sheriff’s officials did not identify the body as Fox until Monday night. Officials said the coroner’s report will be released once it is available.
The encounter was the second shark-related incident at Lovers Point in three years. In 2022, Steve Bruemmer, 62, was rescued by passers-by after a shark bit him on the thighs and stomach. Bruemmer was part of the same swimming pool.
Incidents of shark attacks on humans are still rare in California. According to the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, there have been about 230 documented shark attacks across the country since 1950, with only 17 deaths. Experts say the increase in reported incidents reflects increased use of the beach and improved reporting, not an increase in aggressive shark behavior.
At the Sunday morning memorial, team members and friends walked together along the bluffs at Lovers Point, following Fox’s last mile route on the water, Mercury news report.
In his column, Rubin remembered Fox as a “bright light of a person” and a triathlete and interesting writer.
“He developed a deep relationship with the Pacific Ocean not by reading it or looking at it, but by going into it – over and over again, on painful days and gloriously calm days, logging what I can only guess at thousands of miles.”
