Plantation Key where one of the bodies was found.

Unknown to me at the time, last week as I was flying out of Florida and escaping the Storm, four unidentified corpses, scattered over a 30 mile stretch along the Florida Keys (where my family and I had snorkeled during our vacation), were found floating offshore. Authorities believe they started out together but currents, tides and Tropical Storm Fay scattered the bodies.

The remains showed signs that sharks had fed on them…making it virtually impossible to figure out if they were victims of Tropical Storm Fay, drug smugglers (who, I found out yesterday, frequent Summerland Key) or illegal immigrants (who often come from nearby Cuba).

The first body, that of a white male, was found by a lobsterman. The next day a family snorkeling along a reef near Indian Key came across a second body in the water (another male), and called 911 from a cell phone on their boat. (Now, I can’t imagine the horror of coming across a body while blissfully snorkeling with your family! Hopefully the children didn’t make the discovery…nightmare material for sure.) Hours later, two more men were found floating off the upper Keys.

Only two of the bodies had fingerprints. And if authorities can’t match the prints to anything in their database and no one comes forward to identify any the corpses, the bodies will be buried in graves that Florida reserves for the poor and unidentified.

You know that somewhere out there loved ones are wondering what happened to those men…let’s hope their identities will be discovered in time to lay them to rest with love.

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
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