week 10.2: chrissie

Chrissie Watson, 17, of 23 Sharkstooth St., Amity, was found dead on the beach Monday morning. Watson was last seen alive on Sunday night leaving a beach party with Christopher P. Hoggenbottam III. The pair had decided to go swimming around 11 p.m. 

Amity Village Police Department have begun investigations. Hoggenbottam, 20, a sophomore at Trinity College, reported at 6 a.m. on Monday that Watson did not return from the water. After a brief search, Police Deputy Jay Hendricks located Watson’s mangled body on the shoreline.

Watson’s body had been severely mauled by an attack of unknown origin. Her body has been transported to the coroner’s office an autopsy.

Watson entered the water at a remote section of South Beach near the South Beach Shoal bell buoy. Police have learned from witnesses that both teenagers had been drinking and possibly smoking marijuana throughout the evening.

Ericka Dupervil, 20, was at the party and saw Watson and Hoggenbottam leave together. “[Watson] didn’t seem intoxicated at all,” Dupervil said. “I saw Hoggenbottam have a coupe of beers.”

Police Chief Martin Brody has been with the Amity Village Police Department about a year. There has never been a history of shark attacks “because I’ve never heard of one,” he said at a press conference this morning.

Although a shark attack has not been completely ruled out, the beaches will remain open. “We don’t know what it could have been,” Brody said. “It could have been a stalker in the dunes.”

Watson was a senior at Amity High School and was a member of the varsity swim team and a lifeguard at the Amity Island YMCA pool in Oak Bluffs.