A week after vanishing during an ocean swim off the Monterey coast, California triathlete Erica Fox, 55, was killed in a shark attack, according to a newly released report from the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner’s office.
Fox disappeared in December 2025 while swimming with 14 others in the waters off Pacific Grove. Her body was discovered about 25 miles south near Davenport Beach in Santa Cruz County, still partially clad in her wetsuit. Authorities reported that Fox sustained “sharp and blunt force injuries and submersion in water due to a shark attack,” with her swimsuit and wetsuit torn and displaying a “semi-circle of tooth wounds” from her abdomen to her knees. The report indicated that a single bite fractured her pelvis and severed a major artery.
Marine biologist Chris Lowe, from the Shark Lab at California State University Long Beach, suggested the shark likely mistook Fox for a seal or sea lion, calling it a “mistake” and a “horrible trauma.” Witness accounts at the time reported seeing a shark with a human body in its jaws before it submerged.
Fox was a co-founder of the Kelp Krawlers, a local swim club. During the December 2025 swim, other members reported a “large splash” and feared a shark attack. While the other swimmers returned to shore, Fox remained missing.
This incident marks the third shark attack at Lover's Point since June 2022, when fellow Kelp Krawler member Steve Bruemmer, then 62, was bitten on the leg and rescued by paddleboarders.