The 27-year-old mystery surrounding the disappearance of a German tourist who was windsurfing off the coast of Western Australia has been solved.
In 1997, experienced windsurfer Werner Schoenhofer travelled with a group of sailors from Germany to Western Australia for a five-week holiday.
The group visited Geraldton, approximately 420km north of Perth, which is considered one of the best windsurfing locations in the world due to its strong winds and calm conditions.
Mr Schoenhofer went windsurfing with his friend Klaus Maier at Point More, Geraldton on the afternoon of 20 January 1997, but never returned to shore.
The friends became separated from each other on the water and when Mr Maier returned to land at around 5:30 p.m., conditions had become dangerous: a strong wind was blowing and the sea was rough.
Mr Maier became concerned about his friend and reported him missing to Geraldton Police Station half an hour later.
That night an air and sea search was unable to locate the area, but the next day his board washed up on Coronation Beach, about nine nautical miles north of Point Moore.
The skipper of a crayfish boat found his torn blue and yellow wetsuit and damaged windsurfing harness in the ocean, near where his board was found later that day.
A coroner has determined that windsurfer Werner Schoenhofer (pictured) was likely killed by a four-metre tiger shark off the coast of Western Australia 27 years ago.
Mr. Schoenhofer’s body was never found.
According to deputy coroner Sarah Linton, the wetsuit was covered in bite marks and it was clear to locals that the bite marks had been caused by a shark.
A report by a senior scientist from the Forensic Services Biology Department found that the damage to the wetsuit and harness was consistent with bites from a large tiger shark, approximately 3.5 to 4 metres long.
She said the report also confirmed through DNA testing that the wetsuit and harness belonged to Mr Schoenhofer.
“Unfortunately this is a rare but not unknown occurrence in the waters off Western Australia, which are known to have a high shark population,” the deputy coroner said in her report.
‘There have been fatal tiger shark attacks in particular in the waters off Geraldton. Local fishermen reported seeing more sharks in the area than usual at the time, due to the unusually warm water conditions.’
Mr Schoenhofer’s body was never found after he disappeared from Geraldton in Western Australia in January 1997 (pictured)
Witnesses reported seeing Mr Schoenhofer being thrown from his boat about 2km from shore, local newspaper the Geraldton Guardian reported.
Another windsurfer, Rik Engstrom, who examined Mr. Schoenhofer’s board, said there was a dent in the sail, near his head, indicating he had fallen on his head.
Mr Engstrom told the West Australian newspaper that this could have left him unconscious or incapacitated before he fell into the water and was taken by a shark.
“It is clear from the information provided by Mr Schoenhofer’s family that his disappearance came as a great shock to them as his family was very close and he was very well loved,” said Deputy Coroner Linton.
‘They felt a great loss when he never returned from Australia, but they accepted that he died on January 20, 1997 doing something he loved and that he understood the risks involved.’