Amity Shark Attack Story 2

            Two people have now died in what police are calling possible shark attacks. Alex Kintner, 10, and Chrissie Watson, 17, were both killed on Monday following vicious attacks.

            Kintner was floating on a rubber raft at Village Beach at around 2 p.m. when the attack occurred. The water was full of beach-goers, mainly children, when Kintner was pulled under and blood started to spread throughout the water. Panic set in as people began to realize what was happening. Parents began running into the water to remove their children from the area.

            Kintner’s raft, which appeared to have a large bite mark, washed up on shore within moments. The boy’s mother, Marion Kintner, was at the scene and is currently being treated for shock at Amity General Hospital. There are no other injuries in this case, although one beach goer said that his dog never returned from the water. Kintner’s body, as the well as the dog’s, has not yet been recovered.

            The other attack, which claimed the life of Watson, occurred earlier in the day. Police Deputy Jay Hendricks found her mangled body at about 8 a.m. and according to medical reports, she had been dead for about nine hours.

Watson was found on the shore of South Beach where she had been swimming with Christopher P. Hoggenbottam the night before. Hoggenbottam, a sophomore at Trinity College, had been at a party with Watson that where witnesses said that both teenagers had been drinking heavily and possibly smoking marijuana. The pair left together at about 11 p.m. and Hoggenbottam called in a missing persons report for Watson at 6 a.m. 
            Police believe that both cases may be linked to possible shark activity in the Amity area but the investigation is still ongoing. At Monday night's town hall meeting Police Chief Martin Brody discussed his plans for closing the beaches on July 4. The Kintner family offered a $3000 dollar reward for the capture of the perpetrators in their son's death, but fisherman Quint offered to hunt down the alleged shark. Both deaths are still being looked into and police are stressing that a shark attack was only a possibility.