Overview
- Santa Cruz County deputies positively identified the remains as 55-year-old Erica Fox, who disappeared during a Dec. 21 group swim off Lovers Point in Pacific Grove.
- The body was recovered on Dec. 27 about four miles south of Davenport, roughly 25 to 30 miles from where Fox went missing.
- Search teams spent more than 15 hours covering over 84 square nautical miles before suspending operations on Dec. 22.
- Witnesses reported a splash and sightings of a shark near the time of her disappearance, but the cause of death has not been released pending autopsy results.
- Shark experts note adult white sharks frequent the Central Coast in winter and that injury-related shark bites in California average about three per year; Fox’s swim group held a memorial and plans to return to the water.