One of the most prevalent comments I receive when I say I am from Santa Monica (a beach town) is asking if I am a surfer. I am not, and I have never been able to surf a day in my life. However, most people in these beach towns do surf, and every so often we get a shark warning or even a shark attack. Specifically on the morning of Friday, April 15, 1994, when the body of Michelle Von Emster was discovered by two surfers. But let’s break this down further.
April 15th, 1994: Michelle’s body is discovered, and an informal autopsy is conducted.
After the discovery, her body was taken to the local lifeguard headquarters. Michelle was found naked, with only jewelry on. Her autopsy took place shortly after her body arrived at the lifeguard headquarters, where she had large wounds with missing tissue. It is worthy to note that her right leg was missing. It was believed that she was not in the water for a long time, and most likely was attacked by a great white shark. However, there was not a definitive cause of death (Buzzfeed, 2017).
April 16, 1994: A formal autopsy took place:
*Trigger warning for brutal details*
We find out that Michelle’s neck and ribs were broken, had several scrapes, bruises, and contusions on her face. Sand was found in her mouth, throat, and stomach- she was alive when she ingested it (Buzzfeed, 2017).
The autopsy concluded a rough timeline of her death and the moments leading up to it. Stating that she was last seen at 8:00 pm on the 15th, and was in the water by midnight. This second autopsy also concluded a shark attack was her cause of death due to lifeguards, harbor police, and local marine biologists at Scripps Institute told him that this was most likely what happened. They go on to say that a great white shark attacked her, and pulled her to the bottom of the ocean. This is where she most likely broke her neck, ribs, and swallowed sand. Ultimately, they claimed she died from blood loss and drowning (Buzzfeed, 2017).
This seems logical, right? Nope, there are more details that contradict this manner and cause of death.
First of all, the second medical examiner (nor anyone else who saw the body) had never seen a death caused by a shark. The experts at Scripps had not seen the body. Second, great white shark attacks generally do not look like this. An expert Ralph Collier stated that the bite marks on Michelle’s body were not consistent with a great white. Michelle’s body had jagged marks, whereas great white shark’s bites are clean and smooth. Third, the assumption that Michelle’s leg was bitten off and then ingested sand are incorrect. She would have bled out before she could have ingested the sand. Additionally, if she had been bitten by a great white shark, teeth would have broken off into her body. Blue shark bites were found on her body. However, this most likely took place after her death (Buzzfeed, 2017).
So, what did happen?
The first theory is that Michelle simply just drowned. She could have gotten caught in a riptide, and possibly hit rocks, causing some of her injuries. However, the water was cold during this time of year (Buzzfeed, 2017).
The second theory is that she fell off the cliff above the ocean where she was found. her injuries are more consistent with a fall than the other theory proposed. However, this doesn’t explain her leg being missing (Buzzfeed, 2017).
The third theory is that Michelle was murdered. Michelle did not live in the best part of town, which could lead to some poor encounters and situations. Secondly, this is more aligned with the fact that she was found without clothes. A shark cannot remove someone’s clothing. Another aspect to note is her purse was found about two miles away from where she was found with all of her valuables in it. Some believe that this points towards someone else planting the purse after leaving Michelle either injured or deceased (Buzzfeed, 2017).
There are two suspects in this case. Edwin Decker, a work acquaintance, told police that she liked to surf naked- an easy explanation as to why she was found without her clothing. He also claimed that he and Michelle spent April 13th and 14th together getting drinks and kissing in his apartment. He claimed that there was a connection between the two. After hearing of her death, he wrote a poem that was rather weird, discussing how he and the shark both took off her shirt (Buzzfeed, 2017).
The second suspect was an unknown stalker that prayed on Michelle from her previous job. She left that job due to this stalker. She didn’t know this man’s name but knew he drove a motorcycle (Buzzfeed, 2017).
Personally, I believe that Decker did have something to do with her death. His behavior and poem were too weird for him to not be involved somehow. I believe that he assaulted her and then pushed her off the cliff where she was later eaten by a shark. Although this doesn’t explain everything surrounding her death, I think it makes the most sense.
So, what do you all think happened to Michelle Von Emster?
Sources
I commonly joke with people that April 15th is “everything sucks day”. President Lincoln was assassinated, the Titanic Sunk, the Boston bombing occurred, it’s American Tax day and of course, in this context, Michelle’s body was discovered. April 15th just so happens to be my birthday…
ANYWAY, this was a great analysis and I really enjoyed reading the commentary at the end.
While I have watched some of the unsolved cases put out by Buzzfeed, I had never heard of this case. This summary of the case is very well done, and I enjoyed reading it.
I don’t think this was an accident and someone did kill Michelle because of her missing leg would not make sense if it was an accident. However, I am not convinced that Decker was the killer. He does seem creepy, but that does not make him a killer.