Body discovered after swimmer went missing in possible shark attack in California
Waters of Monterey Bay, Monterey, California, August 5, 2025. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
(MONTEREY, Calif) — A body has been discovered near where a swimmer who may have been attacked by a shark went missing last week, officials in California said in an update on Sunday.
The woman’s body was recovered from the ocean south of Davenport Beach, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office.
Due to the close proximity to the recent shark attack victim in Monterey County, the agency said it is working closely with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office and the Pacific Grove Police Department regarding the recovery.
The swimmer — who was identified by officials as 55-year-old Erica Fox — was reported missing just after noon on Dec. 21 at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove in Monterey Bay, according to a joint statement from the Coast Guard and the cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey.
Fox’s father confirmed to ABC’s Santa Cruz affiliate KSBW on Sunday that family members identified the body as Fox, based on the clothing she was wearing.
Fox was wearing a shark deterrent anklet when she disappeared, family members said, according to KSBW.
After her disappearance, two witnesses said the swimmer “may have encountered a shark,” the statement said. One person reported seeing a shark with a body in its mouth before it submerged, a Coast Guard official said.
A decision to suspend the search last week was made following a total of more than 15 hours of search operations covering an area of more than 84 square nautical miles, according to officials.
Lovers Point Beach in Pacific Grove and McAbee Beach and San Carlos Beach in Monterey were closed through Tuesday, the officials said.
ABC News’ Tristan Maglunog and Amanda Morris contributed to this report.
Mega Millions lottery tickets sit inside a convenience store in Lower Manhattan, (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot is now the eighth largest in history ahead of Friday night’s drawing where one lucky person could win an estimated $965 million.
The jackpot grew from $900 million to where it currently stands after no ticket matched all six numbers drawn Tuesday night.
The jackpot was last won on June 27.
The prize has a cash value of $445.3 million which can be offered as a one-time lump sum payment or an immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments.
After four jackpot wins in the first half of this year, Friday’s drawing will be the 40th drawing in this run, a game record, since it was last won in Virginia on June 27.
Even though nobody won the jackpot on Tuesday night, there were 809,030 winning tickets across all prize tiers for total nationwide winnings of more than $27.9 million, according to Mega Millions.
The odds of winning the jackpot at 1 in 290,472,336, according to Mega Millions.Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $5 for one play.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot prize ever won was $1.6 billion prize won on Aug. 8, 2023.
(NEW YORK) — After a three-month battle over the legality of her appointment, Alina Habba has resigned from her position as the Acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.
She announced her resignation as U.S. attorney in a social media post on Monday. She will remain serving as “Senior Adviser to the Attorney General for U.S. Attorneys.”
The resignation comes after a protracted legal fight about whether she could serve in the U.S. attorney role without Senate confirmation.
In August, a federal judge ruled that she was serving in the position “without lawful authority” and disqualified her as New Jersey’s top federal law enforcement officer. A federal appeals court unanimously upheld that decision last week, and the Department of Justice has not appealed that decision.
“As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” Habba said in her statement. “But do not mistake compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”“Following the flawed Third Circuit decision disqualifying Alina Habba from performing her duties in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey, I am saddened to accept Alina’s resignation.
“Following the flawed Third Circuit decision disqualifying Alina Habba from performing her duties in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of New Jersey, I am saddened to accept Alina’s resignation,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will seek further review of this decision, and we are confident it will be reversed. Alina intends to return to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey if this occurs.”
Despite the rulings, Habba remained in the position after Attorney General Pam Bondi named her a “Special Attorney to the Attorney General,” though several judges delayed proceedings to consider the legality of her position.
Before she was appointed as U.S. attorney, Habba served as a personal defense attorney for President Donald Trump in his New York civil fraud case and defamation trials. Last month, a federal appeals court upheld a $1 million penalty against Habba and Trump for bringing a frivolous lawsuit against former FBI Director James Comey and Hillary Clinton.
The Trump administration has faced growing headwinds over its efforts to install Trump loyalists as top prosecutors in U.S. attorneys’ offices across the country, suffering a string of court defeats as judges raise concerns they’re actively disregarding the law.
Last month, a judge threw out both criminal cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James after determining that Lindsey Halligan, a former insurance lawyer and White House aide with no prosecutorial experience, was unlawfully appointed to lead the Eastern District of Virginia U.S. Attorney’s Office.
While Bondi previously said the administration would appeal that ruling, as of Monday, no appeal has been filed, and last week, a grand jury rejected an effort by the administration to revive its case against James.
A growing chorus of judges for the Eastern District of Virginia has raised concerns that the administration appears to be defying the order that disqualified Halligan by continuing to include her signature and title on legal filings.
On Monday morning, Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a joint statement attacking judges for questioning Halligan’s legitimacy in the role, and accused them of “engaging in an unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility.”
“Lindsey and our attorneys are simply doing their jobs: advocating for the Department of Justice’s positions while following guidance from the Office of Legal Counsel,” the statement said. “They do not deserve to have their reputations questioned in court for ethically advocating on behalf of their client. This Department of Justice has no tolerance for undemocratic judicial activism.”
Former Olympic snowboarder and Canadian national Ryan Wedding is seen in photos released by the FBI. FBI
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department unsealed new charges against a former Canadian Olympian snowboarder who is allegedly the “largest distributor of cocaine” in Canada, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The charges allege Ryan Wedding ordered the killing of a witness who was set to testify against him in a U.S. federal trial in a drug trafficking case, prosecutors said.
“Wedding collaborates closely with the Sinaloa Cartel, a foreign terrorist organization, to flood not only American but also Canadian communities with cocaine coming from Colombia,” Bondi said at a press briefing Wednesday. “His organization is responsible for importing approximately six metric tons of cocaine a year into Los Angeles via semi trucks from Mexico.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
