Coroner: Women died of blunt trauma

OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. -- Two women killed in a parasail accident Friday at Ocean Isle Beach might have died when they hit the water the first time, a regional pathologist with the N.C. Medical Examiner's office said Monday.

Dr. William Kelly, regional pathologist in Jacksonville, N.C., said he can't be certain which hit killed the women, but he knows they didn't die of drowning.

A witness to the incident said the women struck the ocean several times while being dragged by a parasail that had detached from its tow boat.

Kelly determined that blunt trauma is the official cause of death. One of the women -- Cynthia Woodcock, 60, of Kernersville, N.C., and Lorrie Shoup, 54, of Granby, Colo. -- had a broken back and the other a broken neck, but Kelly didn't specify which had which. Kelly said both had neck and spinal cord injuries and suffered broken ribs.

The two women were 75 to 100 feet above the water when Jay Jenkins of Maryland first saw them. A storm was moving toward the beach and it appeared the two women and the tow boat were frozen in place as they were being buffeted by strong winds that preceded the storm, he said.

Jenkins said that the tow rope snapped and that the parasail was caught in a strong burst of wind that carried the women down the beachfront toward the island's fishing pier.

Jenkins said the two women were slammed into the ocean and then pulled up and pushed down several times before the parasail caught on the pier where the two women were pulled from the surf.

Kelly said he had been told the women also collided with the tow boat that was by then trying to rescue them.

Mark Gore, an assistant coroner for Brunswick County, said he rushed to the scene as an emergency medical responder in Shallotte and did not examine the women's bodies.

"Our biggest concern was crowd control and media control,'' he said of his work at the scene.

Jenkins said he had to wade into rough surf that was chest high to reach one of the women, whom he took onto the beach after the women had been cut free from the parasail, which was underwater and trying to drag them down as well.