CA CA - Michelle Von Emster, 25, Ocean Beach, 15 April 1994

[AvalonGlitter]

On April 15, 1994, the naked, battered body of a 25 year old woman named Michelle Von Emster was found floating facedown in the water, about 200 yards off the beach at Point Loma, California, near Sunset Cliffs. This woman was found to have a missing right leg from the thigh down, which was seemingly sharpened to a point. Her pelvis was separated, and she suffered various other injuries including missing flesh from blue sharks, multiple contusions, and some broken ribs. She also had sand in her stomach and throat. The cause of death was determined accidental- the woman supposedly stripped down, took a midnight swim in the 59 degree ocean all alone, and was attacked and killed by a great white shark. This whole investigation seems very fishy, and not at all conclusive with actual great white victims. I believe this was either a murder or suicide- a fall or push down Sunset Cliffs explains the injuries, with blue shark bites lost mortem, but not the fact that she was naked, her femur was pointed, and that her purse was found unharmed 2.5 miles away on a popular beach. The primary suspect is a man named Edward Decker, a co worker who felt that they had a "deep emotional connection.... at least on my part." He also wrote a poem about their relations, which I find more than a little unsettling-"The reports said there was a tattoo

A butterfly on her shoulder

which I remembered that night

on my couch when I

Like the shark

Chewed on her lips and took off her shirt."

Ick! This guy seems very sketchy, and he also proclaimed that she "liked to surf naked", although no local surfers had ever seen Michelle prior to the incident. I am fascinated by this case- what do you guys think? This sounds more sinister than skinny dipping and a shark.

 

[dalsglen]

Accidental? Really?

No way!!

 

[OkieGranny]

Good feature article here:

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2014/apr/09/cover-naked-and-alone-ocean-night/#

Something you don’t see every day: seagulls standing on the ocean. A 20-year-old surfer named David Corriea would tell this to investigators and reporters later. It was a couple hours ahead of sunset and there they were, just standing out there, maybe a half dozen, roosting and pecking on something or other floating outside the break at South Garbage. When curiosity got the better of him, Corriea called out to the only other surfer who was in the vicinity...

Except for a few bracelets, rings, and a butterfly tattoo, she was nude... Engel examined the remains on the deck of Rescue One. In his report, he noted that the body revealed “large, tearing type wounds with missing tissue.” Most of the right leg was gone. He estimated that the woman had not been in the water long. Not a scrap of ID or clothing was recovered with the body. Engel’s report did not specify a precise cause of death, but all involved assumed that at least one shark, and probably many more, had mauled the woman.

During the formal autopsy on Saturday April 16, the extent of the Jane Doe’s injuries told a difficult story of her final minutes. Her face was raw with scrapes and contusions and bruises. Her neck was broken. Her right leg was sheared off mid-thigh. Shredded tissue and bone was all that remained of her mangled buttocks, parts of her arms, and the remaining leg. There were busted ribs, and her pelvis had been pulled apart by brute force. She bled internally, and then she drowned. In other words, she was alive when whatever it was inflicted all this damage...

If Edwin Decker’s memory is correct, Michelle Von Emster likely woke up on the last day of her life with a hangover. On the night of Wednesday, April 13, after weeks of flirting, Decker convinced her to have drinks with him at Winston’s. After, they bought a 12-pack of beer and smokes and walked the few blocks to Decker’s apartment over on Lotus Street. They stayed up and drank until dawn...

 

[CastlesBurning]

BEWARE: These 50 Strangest Unsolved Mysteries of All Time Are Seriously Spooky!

40. The Michelle Von Emster Case

On April 15, 1994, in San Diego, California around Sunset Cliffs, two surfers found the body of 25-year-old Michelle Von Emster, floating face down in a kelp bed. The body was taken to the lifeguard headquarters. She was found naked, wearing only a brass bracelet and two rings. She had a butterfly tattoo on her shoulder and had long brown hair. Medical examiner Robert Engel also noted she had “large, tearing type wounds with missing tissue” as the body was missing most of its right leg. He believed that Michelle had not been in the water long and marked her death as “unknown.” Nevertheless, there was an overwhelming consensus that her death was caused by a shark attack.

One day later, on April 16, a formal autopsy was conducted by a medical examiner, Brian Blackbourne. In addition to her right leg being missing from the thigh down, Michelle’s neck was broken “as if she had been in a car wreck” and had broken ribs, scrapes, bruises, and contusions on her face. Sand was also found in her mouth, throat, lungs, and stomach. Furthermore, the autopsy revealed that she had been alive when the injuries were inflicted. According to Blackbourne’s timeline, he concluded that she got into the water around midnight and this was indeed a shark attack because lifeguards, harbor police, and marine biologists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography told him so.

However, there are things that don’t add up for the cause of death being a shark attack. Blackbourne had never seen a death caused by a shark before and neither had anyone who initially saw the body. The experts at the Scripps Institution had never seen Michelle’s body making their initial inquiries questionable.

Additionally, many experts say today that this death wasn’t caused by a Great White as the autopsy stated including Ralph Collier, the leading expert in Pacific Coast white shark behavior and ecology. After seeing Michelle’s body, Collier said “when a shark bites off part of a limb, the break is clean, almost like you put it on a table saw. What remained of Michelle’s femur was anything but. It looked like what happens when you get a piece of bamboo and whittle it down to a point with a knife. I’ve looked at close to 100 photos of cases that I have reviewed over the years, and I’ve never seen any bones that came to a point.” Plus, it’s important to note, once Michelle’s leg had been severed, she would have bled out quickly from a severed femoral artery. This would have made it extremely difficult to take a large breath, as she would have had to have done to get the sand into her stomach. This makes the theory that a shark forced her to the bottom of the ocean (where she took a breath and swallowed sand) extremely unlikely.

Officially, Michelle’s death is considered the result of a great white shark attack but the true nature and circumstances of her untimely demise remain a mystery.

 

[tmcolon]

Hi, Michelle’s sister here. The public does not have all the facts, a decision made by the family. Michelle was not murdered. There is no mystery around her death.

Thank you,

Teresa Colon