For days, divers scanned the waters off Lovers Point hoping to find a trace of Erica Fox, the missing open-water swimmer believed to have been killed by a shark on Dec. 21.<\/p>\n
The intensive search involving multiple agencies came to an end last weekend when rescue teams recovered Fox\u2019s body<\/a> six days after she vanished from Monterey Bay, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff\u2019s Office confirmed Monday night. Fox was identified based on personal items recovered with her remains, including a shark-deterrent band worn on her ankle.<\/p>\n \u201cErica was doing what she loved \u2014 connected to the ocean, alive in her element. That matters. She didn\u2019t lose her life in fear, but in passion,\u201d Juan Heredia, a rescue diver who searched tirelessly for Fox, wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n A well-known figure in the local open-water swimming community, Fox was a co-founder of the Kelp Krawlers, a Pacific Grove-based group that swims year-round in Monterey Bay.<\/p>\n A friend and fellow swimmer, Sara Rubin, was among a group of 15 swimmers present when Fox disappeared. Rubin later wrote about the incident <\/a>in local news outlet Monterey County Now.<\/p>\n \u201cA harbor seal swam under me for close to a minute as I approached the beach, one of those wildlife-human interactions that we cherish,\u201d Rubin wrote. \u201cLike the other swimmers, I was unaware that a tragedy was happening, with only the sounds of my own strokes splashing.\u201d<\/p>\n While the group was in the water, two witnesses reported the incident from shore around noon, telling Pacific Grove police that a swimmer may have encountered a shark, department officials said. When Rubin and the others returned to the beach, they realized Fox was not accounted for.<\/p>\n Police and fire crews from Pacific Grove and Monterey quickly launched a search-and-rescue operation, supported by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Monterey County Sheriff\u2019s Office, California State Parks and multiple aircraft and vessels, authorities said. Beaches in Pacific Grove and Monterey closed for days as a precaution.<\/p>\n Despite more than 15 hours of searching across roughly 84 square nautical miles, crews were unable to locate Fox, and the active search was suspended later that day, according to police.<\/p>\n Divers including Heredia and Fox\u2019s husband, Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Vanreusel, continued scouring the rocky coastline until Fox\u2019s remains werefound by law enforcement on Dec. 27 several miles north of Lovers Point. Cal Fire crews used a rope system to retrieve the body of the swimmer, clad in a black-and-blue wetsuit, from a remote stretch of beach south of Davenport, according to officials.<\/p>\n \u201cToday, at approximately 2:00 p.m., a body was recovered from the ocean south of Davenport Beach,\u201d the Santa Cruz County Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a statement. \u201cDue to the close proximity to the recent shark attack victim in Monterey County, our agency is working closely with the Monterey County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Pacific Grove Police Department regarding the recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheriff\u2019s officials did not identify the body as Fox until Monday night. Officials said a coroner\u2019s report would be released once available.<\/p>\n