A bizarre — and disturbing — twist in the case of a missing Michigan woman.
According to a Fox News report that cited comments from her friend, the remains of Colleen Monfore have been discovered inside the stomach of a shark after she disappeared on vacation in Indonesia while on a diving trip.
Monfore, 68, was diving with friends near the Pulau Reong island off the coast of Indonesia’s Southwest Maluku Regency on Sept. 26 when she did not resurface.
However, according to reports, nearly two weeks after Monfore disappeared, a fisherman spotted a shark in distress and killed the creature. Upon cutting open the shark’s stomach, the fisherman uncovered what were believed to be Monfore’s remains along with her wetsuit and bathing suit.
It’s suspected that Monfore was attacked by a shark during the dive, and eaten.
However, Kim Sass, who wrote that Monfore was her “very good friend” in a Facebook post, listed what is known about the case, and how it appears likely that Monfore died of a medical issue during a dive.
Sass wrote that the fisherman captured the shark around Oct. 4 near Timor-Leste, a southeast Asian country which is 70 miles away from the dive site where Monfore vanished over a week earlier.
Monfore’s remains were identifiable, according to Sass, which would not have been had the shark eaten her at the time she went missing.
While it can take days for sharks to fully digest a meal, the stomach of a shark “produces an acid that is strong enough to dissolve metal,” while “large bones and other indigestible objects are prevented from going past the stomach due to the small size of the opening to the intestine,” according to the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources.
Sass believes that the nearly eight-day timeframe from when Monfore disappeared to when the shark was found suggests that the shark consumed Monfore after she was already dead.
“Colleen’s body was identifiable. Her fingerprints (again identifiable) are being used by our US Embassy and the local government for proof of death,” Sass wrote. “This would not be possible if the shark had attacked her weeks ago.”
Indonesian authorities are continuing to investigate the exact cause of death.