A 56-year-old Minnesota woman was killed in a suspected shark attack off St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands, authorities say. Emergency services began getting calls around 4:28pm local time about a swimmer bitten in the water near Dorsch Beach in Frederiksted, according to the Virgin Islands Police Department. Marine units, firefighters, and EMTs rushed to the scene and found the woman critically injured, with one arm severed in the attack, ABC News reports. She died from her injuries after she was taken to a hospital.
Police initially feared more than one person might have been harmed and launched a search of the surrounding area. Rescue crews scoured the beach but found no additional victims. The woman was later identified by family members as Arlene Lillis. The St. Thomas Source reports that two other visitors from the mainland US pulled Lillis from the water. Christopher Carroll, a nurse and former lifeguard from Utah, says he ran to the beach and swam out to the injured woman, who was around 10 yards from shore, after hearing an "ungodly screaming" from his hotel balcony.
Ryan Connot, a lineman from Nebraska trained in CPR, swam out to help. Both men say Lillis remained conscious despite her injuries and they tried to reassure her. "She told us her name was Arlene," Connot says. "That was about halfway back. I think that was the last thing she said." First responders said Lillis' husband was not at the beach at the time, but officers located him and brought him to the hospital. The couple, from the small city of Detroit Lakes, were frequent visitors to the islands, WTJX reports.
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