Chrissie

Teenage girl's body found on Amity Beach

Chrissie Watson is found dead on an Amity Village beach today, Mon. July 2. Watson was last seen alive leaving a beach party with another teen, Christopher P. Hoggenbottam III.

Watson was only 17, and police investigators learned from witnesses that both teens had been drinking heavily and possibly smoking marijuana at the beach party that evening.

Watson was a member of the varsity swim team at Amity High School and a lifeguard at the Amity Island YMCA pool in Oak Bluffs. She decided to go swimming the night of July 1, in a remote area of South Beach near the South Beach Shoal bell buoy.

Hoggenbottam remembered following Watson to the water from the party, although the rest of his evening was a little blurry. Hoggenbottam never made it into the water after her.

“I didn't see that she was highly intoxicated at all,” said Erika Dupler, an attendant of the same beach party. Dupler recalled seeing Hoggenbottam have a couple of beers during the evening.

The weather that night was clear, a temperature of 72 degrees F, and the seas were calm. Water temperatures were close to 65 degrees and winds were out of the south at about 3 knots.

Hoggenbottam reported passing out on the beach that evening, so it wasn't until 6 a.m. the next morning he notified police that Watson had never returned from the water.

Watson’s mangles body was found by Police Deputy Jay Hendricks early this morning after it washed up on the beach. Her body appeared to have been severely mutilated by an unknown attacker. Today her body was collected and transported to the coroner’s office for an autopsy.

No charges have been filed in the case, and police will continue a thorough investigation of the incident. Hoggenbottam is not a suspect in Watson's case. 

Residents rest assured that Amity Beaches are still safe; there is no danger even though a shark attack cannot be completely ruled out. Our lovely beaches will remain open for swimming pending on the outcome of the investigation.

“There is no evidence this was a shark attack,” said Police Chief Martin S. Brody. “No reason to think it was a shark attack.”