Horrifying moment woman found man mauled to death by shark in violent attack
A witness to a fatal shark attack has relived the moment she desperately called for help as the victim died.
After 26-year-old Arthur Medici died off the coast of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, in the first deadly shark attack in the area for 80 years, an on-looker rushed to help him.
The engineering student was bitten on the thigh while boarding with his future brother-in-law Isaac Rocha at Newcomb Hollow Beach on September 15, 2018.
Arthur Medici, suffered severed femoral arteries causing him to bleed out. Despite being the first fatal attack in 80 years, Cape Cod decided to change its treatment of sharks.
Wellfleet resident Mitzi Riley witnessed the attack and tells her side of the story in an HBO documentary released in July this year.
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Medici suffered severed femoral arteries causing him to bleed out (Twitter)She said: "It was about 9.30am, I was by myself. I'd walked way down the beach, same as always, and there were two people in the water already with their boogie boards, putting on an incredible show and I was their little personal cheerleader up on the hill."
However, events escalated at around 12.30pm when she heard a scream and saw thrashing and blood pooling in the sea.
Riley added: "You know, I'm looking down that hill and I said, 'Just what the f**k are you going to do?”
Emergency officials performed CPR on the victim (Twitter)"I went in, a wave came up over Arthur's face and I got underneath him and pulled him up on top of me because we couldn't move him any further.
"I did look down at one point and saw that his legs were kind of laced open but no blood, there was no blood around us, all of the blood was long gone. I told both boys how much I loved them, I kissed them both, hollered for God, and cried and waited for help to come.
"I had no clue what the hell had just happened. The lifeguards were trying to work on him, but there was no helping this poor boy."
He died off the coast of Wellfleet, Massachusetts (Getty Images/Image Source)For the programme, Riley returned to the beach and looked traumatised as she recalled the events of that day.
Medici's death marked the first fatal attack on the Cape in 80 years. The HBO documentary explored the impact of Medici’s death on the local community and trace the story back to where it began in 2018.
The documentary also explained the increase in shark sightings. Following the attack, Medici’s fellow boarder Rocha spoke to about how he desperately swam toward Medici to save him.
He had just completed ridden a wave and was looking for Medici before he grasped what was happening around him.
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Rocha said: "He was screaming and then I saw, like, a shark tail. And I swam to him as fast as I could in that moment. I dragged him back to the shore and I got a boogie board strap and I kind of tied it around his thigh to try to stop the bleeding."
Medici was tasked to Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis but the extent of his injuries meant that nothing could be done.
The documentary, “After the Bite”, sees scientists explain that they have tagged 275 great white sharks in the area but they expect there could be around 400 due to the increase of seals.
Lifeguards also feature in the documentary explaining what new procedures they have since the death of Medici and the influx of sharks to the area.
One person in the documentary said: "It seems like more and more sharks were arriving to Cape Cod each year but not until the poor boy was killed did it really seem like 'okay, now they're here.'"
A resident added that the attack "caused a rift in the community" as people discussed the impact of human activities on the ecosystem.
"Humankind must learn humility in the face of nature," the trailer concludes.
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