The remains of a man missing since mid-February in southern Argentina, and identified by a tattoo, have been found in the stomach of a shark, local authorities said on Tuesday February 28.
The remains found are those of Diego Barria, a 32-year-old oil worker, Daniela Millatruz, head of the missing persons search service for the city of Comodoro Rivadavia, told local media ADNSUR.
“I found a forearm with a tattoo”
The man left on February 18 to ride a quad on the beaches of Rocas Coloradas, near the town of Comodoro Rivadavia.
A few days later his gear and helmet were found damaged on the coast not far from where he had last been seen.
A lover of fishing and adventure tourism, he had since been the subject of intense research.
His remains were found on Sunday in a fruit bat 1.50 meters long fished 1,500 km south of Buenos Aires.
The two fishermen behind the discovery said they wanted to eviscerate the dogfish, a species of small shark, and discovered in its stomach remains of "
dermis, fat and human flesh
", police said.
In an audio recording made public, one of the fishermen recounts his experience to a cousin.
"
I went fishing and cut open the shark's belly and found a forearm with a tattoo on it.
We picked up the remains and went to the prefecture and it was him
,” he says, referring to “
a rose on his forearm that said Josefina
.”
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Although investigators are not ruling out any hypothesis at this time, the most likely is that the man hit a rock before losing consciousness on the shore.
The sea would then have carried away the body, said the head of the regional police unit, Cristian Ansaldo.
The search to find other remains of the man or the clothes he was wearing at the time of his disappearance continues, said Daniela Millatruz.
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