Beachgoer finds body washed up on Outer Banks, National Park Service says
A body was found early Friday on a beach at Cape Hatteras National Seashore on North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
A local resident found the man’s body just before 9:15 a.m. Friday between Salvo and Avon, officials said.
“The body appeared to have been in the ocean for an extended period of time,” according to the park service.
The person’s identity and cause of death have not been determined, the National Park Service said in a news release Friday.
News outlets in Virginia reported the body could be that of 47-year-old Erik Mezick, who went missing in December after his truck crashed over a railing at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Mezick’s family reported Friday they were notified “Erik has been found in North Carolina ... on his favorite beach.” The message appeared on a Facebook page called “Finding Erik Mezick,” which has more than 8,000 members.
Multiple departments responded to the 911 call Friday. The body will be taken to the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office for further investigation, officials said.
The Outer Banks is known as a place where all manner of things wash up on beaches, due to colliding currents from the north and south.
In May, a human head washed up on the Shackleford Banks at Cape Lookout National Seashore, which is to the south of Cape Hatteras.
The discovery prompted an ongoing murder investigation involving a missing 21-year-old soldier stationed at Fort Bragg. The soldier was camping at the park when he vanished May 22, McClatchy News reported. No arrest has been announced in the case.
