Shark attack in Cozumel

[Sashi Menon]

Heard in the local news in Houston that a woman's body parts were washed
ashore in Cozumel. It is beleived that she was diving about 200 miles
(I guess East) of the island and was attacked by sharks. I would think
it takes several days for something to wash ashore from 200 miles. It
happened during a night dive. I believe all night dives have been
cancelled and only "close" to shore dives are allowed.

Does anyone on the net have more info. Please help there are a lot of
us going to Cozumel in the next few weeks and I am sure we all would like
some peace of mind. Thank you.

[Noel D. Addy]

Okay. I'll take a shot at uploading the entire file, but it may
not work. You saw it here strictly without permission.

THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, June 15, 1993

June 15, 1993, Tuesday, HOME FINAL EDITION

SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 861 words

HEADLINE: Allen woman dies in possible shark attack Body of youth corps
official found at Mexican resort after she disappeared during dive

BYLINE: Todd J. Gillman, Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News

BODY:
Mary Eggemeyer, head of the Dallas Youth Services Corps, died in a possible
shark attack last week during a diving trip to Mexico.

Ms. Eggemeyer, 42, of Allen disappeared during a night dive Friday 200 meters
offshore at Cozumel, a resort island south of Cancun. Her mutilated body washed
onto a beach Saturday.

If confirmed as a shark attack, it would be the first at Cozumel since
record-keeping began this century. The area is popular with divers, and shark
sightings are rare.

"No one saw a shark. The only indication we have of a shark is the
nature of the wounds,' said Bryan Wilson, a spokesman for the Cozumel mayor.

"It's a real tragedy, and it's not anything that any of us ever imagined in
our worst nightmare,' said Hugh Robinson, chairman of the services corps, which
teaches job skills to young adults. "We will obviously continue on. We would
not do any less because that's what Mary would want.'

Ms. Eggemeyer was on the weeklong trip with six students and five parents and
teachers of the Winston School, where one of her three children was a student.
She is a former board member of the Dallas school, which serves 150 students
with dyslexia and attention-deficit disorder.

The trip was not officially sanctioned but has become an annual ritual, said
Rita Sherbenou, head of the Winston School. "We're a very close group of
people,' Dr. Sherbenou said. "It's so tragic. She was such a dynamic woman
that has given so much to the Dallas community.'

Ms. Eggemeyer and the others in her group, along with an American instructor
and a local guide, were making their second dive at a popular site known as
Santa Rosa Shallows, where divers descend to a sandy shelf.

The excursion started about 6 p.m. Friday. Ms. Eggemeyer disappeared in the
dark about 7:30 p.m.

"The dive plan was to go to a depth of 60 feet for 40 minutes,' Mr. Wilson
said.

Ms. Eggemeyer was the last diver to enter the water. By then, she had
drifted slightly past the ledge, where the sea floor drops off.

The American instructor reported that -- as he returned another wayward diver
to the boat -- he saw Ms. Eggemeyer swimming without difficulty back to the
ledge.

But within moments, Mr. Wilson said, "The local dive guide came to surface
saying he saw a dive light going over the ledge very fast.'

After a head count found Ms. Eggemeyer missing, eight vessels in the area
joined a search that continued until early the next morning.

"Mary was an experienced diver. She had been to Cozumel five times, and this
was her fourth dive on this trip,' Mr. Wilson said.

Her remains were found floating near a beach Saturday morning about 8:30, Mr.
Wilson said.

"Her body had been mutilated, both legs cut off at the buttocks area. The
left arm was missing, and there was severe damage to the abdominal cavity,' he
said.

The local coroner "believes that a large predator was involved.' Funeral
arrangements are pending an autopsy in Mexico.

It was "very likely' a shark, said George Burgess, a senior biologist at
the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville and director of the
International Shark Attack File, which documents shark attacks worldwide,
dating to the 1700s.

Mr. Burgess will be in Cozumel on Tuesday to help Mexican authorities.

Mayor German Garcia Padilla has ordered temporary suspension of night dives
but has not closed the beaches, Mr. Wilson said.

The Mexican navy and local dive operators have been patrolling a stretch of
beach on the west side of the island.

Along with police and sailors on shore, they are warning bathers to stay
within 50 meters of land.

The hunt involving five boats with experienced Mexican shark fishermen
aboard will center on the Santa Rosa Shallows.

"According to the experts, if he's fed there once, he'll probably come back
and feed there again,' Mr. Wilson said.

"Our intention is not to go out and start slaughtering sharks wholesale,'
he said. "We're looking for one particular shark.'

Because shark sightings are extremely rare in those waters, "it is a
logical assumption' that any shark in the area is a killer, he said.

Mr. Burgess dismissed the theory raised after some recent attacks in
Australia that population pressures are forcing sharks closer to shore than
usual.

" Shark attacks are a natural phenomenon that occur irregularly,' he said.

Officials in Cozumel, which has 60,000 full-time residents and 3,500 hotel
beds, said they want to investigate swiftly to quell tourists' fears.

Ed Fjordbak, president of the Communities Foundation of Texas, where Ms.
Eggemeyer worked until the youth corps was formed three years ago, said Ms.
Eggemeyer left a substantial legacy.

"Through this project, several hundred kids now have jobs and opportunities.
. . . It's a great loss to the community.'

The corps helps inner-city youths ages 18 to 23. The youths construct trails
through city parks or rehabilitate buildings for use by seniors, the disabled or
other service groups.

"Mary lived her life by that,' said a longtime friend and colleague, Kimberly
Floyd. "She's really carried the baton in our community for young people who
fell through the cracks.'

GRAPHIC: PHOTO(S): Mary Eggemeyer . . . disappeared while diving Friday. MAP(S):
POSSIBLE shark attack. (DMN)

[Noel D. Addy]

I probably shouldn't have uploaded the entire file to the net. Apologies
to the net (and probably to The Dallas Morning News).

Noel

[Brian Hunter]

I can't speak for the newspaper but I thank you much for the info
since I will be there in two weeks.

Brian Hunter

[Sashi Menon]

Autopsy report lists cause of death as drowning. Doctor said it was
"medically impossible" to say whether shark-inflicted wounds came before
or after death. The attacker was probably a 10-foot, 500-pound tiger
shark. Tiger sharks feed at night in areas such as the Santa Rosa Shallows
where the woman was diving (at night). This location is not "200" miles
from the island but close to shore near the Santa Rosa Reef - The Wall.

[awrigh...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, June 16, 1993 1:45:06 PM UTC-5, Noel D. Addy wrote:
> Okay. I'll take a shot at uploading the entire file, but it may
> not work. You saw it here strictly without permission.
>
> THE DALLAS MORNING NEWS, June 15, 1993
>
> June 15, 1993, Tuesday, HOME FINAL EDITION
>
> SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 1A

> Hello my name is Amber, this is my first time reading this and you know its sad because this is my grandmother and my uncle was the student there my dad has told me parts of this before but I never knew what happen bit by bit but now I do and its heart breaking. even though I've never met her in my life I still love her and miss her. R.I.P Mary Love you never forgotten I'll see you someday!(:

[capt.bill11]

I'm guessing she died of something unrelated to the shark sttack. The shark feeding came after she was dead.

Very sad either way. But at least she didn't die in a nursing home bed.

[tmer...@gmail.com]

Just found this post online when my daughter asked me about this incident and my role in the events.
I was on this dive and was the last (living) human out of the water that night. Mary was with a school group that my (then) brother-in-law was a part of and he invited me onto the dive boat at the last minute with another family member who was traveling with me from Dallas.
Our dive plan was to drop on the reef side of the ledge and dive the 50-6- foot shallow right after dark. We had already made another dive earlier in the late afternoon from the same boat.
Mary was diving with another young woman as her dive buddy. The two of them and me and my dive partner were at the end of the "stick" as we left the diveboat. The boat drifted along a line that dropped the first 2/3rds of the "stick" onto the reef and we entered the water directly over the dropoff. Since it was a night dive and we expected to decend to a 50-60 foot bottom this developed inot a problem for Mary and her buddy. I saw the problem as my dive lights(I dive with extensive lighing, 4 lights in all) panned over to the reef and I adjusted my path accordingly. We were all relatively close to the edge so kicking down at an angle made the adjustment easy. Mary and/or her buddy were negative and as they worked to correct missed the edge and decended down the drop-off. The dive master saw all this as he exited the boat last. I motioned to him and he indicated that he had them covered and for me to take my partner to the reef.
Mary, her buddy and the dive master met up below me at around 80-90 feet, squared away things and started their assent to the reef edge where I was watching the devalopments and ready to lend a hand if needed as my partner was now safely on the reef near me.
The dive master was actually next to Mary's buddy and they both were slightly above Mary when the shark hit Mary from the deep water side and below. It hit and drove her deeper just brushing by Mary's buddy and the dive master. The last vison I had was a large shadow going deep with Mary's light going with it.
It's been 23 years and I still see it play in slow motion in my minds eye.

[tmer...@gmail.com]

I just posted my response to your grandmothers dive story. I was on that dive in 1993.

[marth...@gmail.com]

Dear Capt.,
This is one of the most ridiculous posts I've ever read. Mary's daughter is one of my very best friends. What she wouldn't give to have had more time with her mom. Mary died doing what she loved to do. But I promise, she would have loved to have watched her children grow into adults and to have met her grandchildren. Even if that mean spending her last days "in a nursing home."

[marth...@gmail.com]

Meant*

[haleyk...@yahoo.com]

Dear Tmer

I'm Haley, Mary's daughter. Thank you for posting about my mom, I never knew that part of the story. I would love to talk to you some day. Email me if you ever have time. haleyk...@yahoo.com

To all the other inquiries.... The cause of death on the autopsy is asphyxiation. It stated on the autopsy that when the shark grabbed her and pulled her down that the regulator in her mouth popped out and that's when she got water in her lungs and had no oxygen to her brain. There were obviously other people there that saw the shark and saw her alive before the attack. So the shark attack caused the drowning, does it really matter what occurred first or what came next? Our lives have never been the same and she is missed daily.

[LBCle...@aol.com]

I was in Cozumel that week and remember the news about Mary's death. The locals were pushing the drowning angle for obvious reasons.

Years later I was talking with a group of teachers about scuba diving and I related the story. A teacher in the group said she was Mary's roommate on that trip ( not her dive buddy that night) I was stunned.
Reading about her life I realized she was a very important lady and led a life of service to others.
I've been diving since 1960, have had many shark encounters but never at night, on one of my few night dives off Palau we saw many averaged size reef sharks and black tips but no tigers.

[djl...@gmail.com]

Funny. I was the American instructor on that dive and the boat was a private group. You can look that up in the newspaper or with NAUI(as I turned in a incident report) and I have no idea who you are. This was my group and I know the real story. Please stop spreading lies.

[djl...@gmail.com]

No It does not. I have the entire incident report from the shark institute in Florida. This was my group trip, it was my group and it was a private boat dive.

[shirli...@gmail.com]

Hello, My name is Shirli Turner, Mary Eggemyer was my sister. I would very much like to see the report on her death. I have been in a terrible place since she died and have never been able to put this behind me. I have watched her kids grow up and have families of their own, I know she would have given anything to be able to see them happy and get to know her grandchildren. I have wondered and cried over this for many years and just want the answers to why and how it happened. Thank you. My email is shirli...@wheatstate.coms

[Tom Mersch]

On Friday, 23 August 2019 at 17:19:54 UTC-4, shirli...@gmail.com wrote:
> Hello, My name is Shirli Turner, Mary Eggemyer was my sister. I would very much like to see the report on her death. I have been in a terrible place since she died and have never been able to put this behind me. I have watched her kids grow up and have families of their own, I know she would have given anything to be able to see them happy and get to know her grandchildren. I have wondered and cried over this for many years and just want the answers to why and how it happened. Thank you. My email is shirli...@wheatstate.coms

I was on the boat that night and was the last diver out of the water. I was an "unofficial diver" on the private charter from the Dallas group as my brother-in-law and I were invited at the last moment by my other brother-in-law who WAS part of the group of Dallas teachers and education executives. If I can add any information feel free to email. Tom Mersch

[John Doe]

Tom Mersch wrote:

> I was on the boat that night and was the last diver out of the water.
> I was an "unofficial diver" on the private charter from the Dallas
> group as my brother-in-law and I were invited at the last moment
> by my other brother-in-law who WAS part of the group of Dallas
> teachers and education executives. If I can add any information
> feel free to email. Tom Mersch

Did anyone die?

[-hh]

Yes; its in the thread.


-hh