Shark kills Florida boogie girl

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Northwest Florida beaches open after deadly shark attack
14-year-old girl killed east of Destin, Florida

DESTIN, Florida (CNN) -- The beaches of northwest Florida opened for swimmers
Sunday, despite a shark attack that killed a 14-year-old girl.

Jamie Daigle, of Gonzales, Louisiana, and her friend Felicia Venable, also 14,
were swimming about 200 yards off shore Saturday morning when they saw a dark shadow
in the water, according to a statement issued Sunday by the Walton County Sheriff's
Office.

Daigle was severely bitten by the shark, with bites on "the lower portions of
her body," the statement said. Police said Venable began heading for shore to get
help from relatives when she saw her friend had been bitten and was being pulled
under.

Emergency personnel were on the scene -- a campground on the Florida Panhandle
east of Destin, -- quickly and attempted to save Daigle, but she died as a result of
her wounds, authorities said.

Both girls were using boogie boards, said Lt. Frank Owens of the Walton County
Sheriff's Office.

"For a regular swimmer, she was pretty far out," Capt. Danny Glidewell of the
sheriff's office said. Usually, only surfers go that far out in the water, he said.
Once swimmers pass the first sandbar, or drop-off, "you will experience more
sightings of sharks," he said, although the area has never before had a shark attack.

The girl's family was back in Gonzales, about 60 miles west of New Orleans, on
Sunday. Their priest, Father Gary Belsome, said he met with her relatives early
Sunday. "They're doing well," he said. "They're surrounded by friends and family.
People are pulling together," Belsome said.

Center of the 'blood pool'
Tim Dicus was surfing Saturday when he heard a scream from the water.

"I was about 200 yards out, just past the second sand bar," Dicus said. "And
when I heard the scream, I turned around and saw one of the girls swimming towards
the beach frantically and the other one had disappeared and there was a big dark spot
where she used to be in the water."

"She was unconscious when I got to the blood pool," Dicus said.

"So I tried to pull her from the water -- the shark had made an attack when I
was trying to get her out of the water. But it gave me enough time to get her on to
the board once he had to come back around to make another attack."

Dicus said the shark -- about eight feet long -- continued to try to attack
them on his surfboard as he made his way to the safety of shore.

"He was really aggressive," Dicus said. "I've been here a long time and I've
never seen a shark get that aggressive."

"She was hurt really bad," Dicus said. "It looked like she was going to at
least lose her leg. The damage on her left leg was really extensive, and I didn't
know whether she had just gone into shock -- but she'd pretty much stopped bleeding
by the time I got her on to the beach -- so I didn't know how we were going to save
her."

Dicus said he had warned other swimmers earlier in the day against going out
too far, fearing shark attacks.

Although shark sightings are not uncommon along the coast, Owens said, no one
had seen a shark in the area Saturday before the attack occurred. The area was under
green flags, meaning calm surf, Glidewell said.

Deaths from unprovoked shark attacks are rare, according to statistics compiled
by the International Shark Attack File.

Seven people were killed in shark attacks worldwide in 2004, including two in
the United States. California and Hawaii each recorded one shark attack death last
year.

There were 12 shark attacks on Florida beaches in 2004, down sharply from 30 in
2003. Experts credit the busy hurricane season in 2004 for the lower numbers.

CNN's Drew Griffin contributed to this report.








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