Diver’s haunting closing want earlier than shark decapitated him in horrific assault

The haunting last wish of a seasoned diver who was decapitated by a shark emerged after his death. Randy Fry, 50, was jumping into the water off the coast of California, US when the beast attacked.

The seas were calm and the weather a warm 32C, as the keen diver and his friend Cliff Zimmerman went fishing for abalone – a snail delicacy – near Fort Bragg.

Randy, 50, popped on his olive green, camouflage wetsuit and diving equipment as the men went out into ocean. They knew the waters they were about to dive into were infested with sharks but didn’t seem concerned as they sat on the edge of their 28-foot boat, the Dolphin, talking.

In passing, Randy had told Cliff a number of times before that if he’d “had to go”, he “wanted it to be in the wate2r. Little did he know, his claim was about to become reality.

With the pair 150 feet from shore and 300 feet from the boat, Cliff looked down through the waters as Randy started his descent on the hunt for sea snails. Seconds later, disaster struck as Cliff spotted a mammoth fin glide between them.

But Randy hadn’t spotted it so continued diving, only for the 18-foot shark to take hold. Cliff said: “I heard a noise, like ‘whoosh,’ like a submarine, like a boat going by fast. It was a shark.”

He watched in horror and sheer disbelief as the shark, which he described as being the “size of a pick-up truck”, went for Randy’s throat and ripped his head clean off his shoulders.

Cliff said the creature “came for the kill” and said the ordeal was “over in five seconds”. As the water turned red, a fisherman known as Red pulled Cliff onto the boat and called the coastguard for help.

Red added: “When I saw the pool of blood spread across the surface of the water, I knew Randy was gone. It was the most dramatic thing I ever saw in my life. It’s just not real.

“This monster came so fast, it happened so fast and was over so fast you think, ‘how can this happen?’ It was terrible. I almost had a heart attack myself. It could have been me.”

But the shark hadn’t actually ingested any of the diver’s body. Randy was killed at 4:30pm on August 15, 2004, and his body was discovered the next day.

But it was not until three weeks later, on September 8, that his severed head was found washed ashore by a beachcomber.

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