THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250447
SECTION: NORTH CAROLINA PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HATTERAS VILLAGE LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
The body of a 20-year-old college student who drowned off the beach near this Outer Banks village washed up Tuesday morning near the Hatteras ferry docks.
Michael C. Coon, a junior at the College of William and Mary, was swimming in the Atlantic with two other students and an economics professor on Saturday when the group got caught in strong near-shore currents about noon.
The two other students and the professor managed to swim back to the beach. When they last saw Coon about 50 yards offshore, he was floating face down, said National Park Service Ranger B.J. Ratlief.
The other swimmers tried to bring Coon in with them. But the rip currents were too strong, Ratlief said. Coon was swept offshore, directly away from the beach.
``We were very fortunate only one of them drowned,'' Ratlief said Tuesday from her Buxton office. ``They all had problems getting back to shore. Those currents were extremely strong.''
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Mike Guerin said the seas were about two feet high, water temperature was 68 degrees and the wind was blowing about 24 mph Saturday afternoon off Hatteras Island. Two Coast Guard boats, a Coast Guard helicopter and a private fixed-wing aircraft searched for Coon through Sunday night. Finally, a Hatteras Village resident found Coon's body in the surf near Ramp 55 about 6:15 a.m. Tuesday.
``That's an inherently dangerous area,'' said National Park Service Asst. Superintendent Mary Collier. ``I know he was a young man full of promise. This certainly was a tragedy.''
A resident of Syracuse, N.Y., Coon was a government major at William & Mary, specializing in international relations. He was a writer for the student newspaper Flat Hat, a recipient of a 1995 Wilson Cross Disciplinary Scholarship, and a eucharistic minister at St. Bede's Church in Williamsburg.
University officials will hold a memorial service in Coon's honor at 7 p.m. tonight at St. Bede's Parish Center on Richmond Road in Williamsburg.
A funeral is scheduled for Saturday at St. Joseph's Church in Camillius, N.Y.
Coon was at least the third person to drown off Hatteras Island this year - the fifth drowning victim on the Outer Banks for 1995.
According to Dare County Sheriff A.L. ``Bert'' Austin, a Hatteras Island native: ``We've had more drownings off Hatteras Village this year than in the last 20 years.''
KEYWORDS: DROWNING by CNB