Tragic Death in Amity

The body of seventeen-year-old girl Christine W. Watson was found mangled, washed up on the beach early Monday morning in Amity.

She went missing Sunday night and currently the cause of her tragic death is unknown and under investigation by The Amity Village Police Department.  Amity Village Police Chief Martin Brody found her,

"I thought she had been murdered," he said.

"How else would the body become so mangled?" Brody asked.

Watson, a senior at Amity High School was last seen alive around 11 p.m. leaving a beach party with another teen, a male identified as Christopher P. Hoggenbottam III, a former resident of the island.

Hoggenbottam told policethat Watson decided to go swimming and entered the water at a remote section of South Beach near South Beach Shoal bell buoy.

"The last time I saw her she was running into the water," Hoggenbottam said.

Hoggenbottam had only met Watson that night and remembers very little, but that she ran into the water naked.

Police report that she has been mauled by an attacker of unknown origin. There are currently no charges filed for the case and the possibility of murder is serious.

Amity Police have not ruled out the possibility that Watson's death may be the result of a shark attack, yet they are assured that residents and visitors of Amity are not in danger.

"I am afraid of the water," Brody said, before reassuring that it was simply due to his poor swimming ability. 

Her body has been transported to the coroner's office for an autopsy that has yet to be completed.