On November 12th of 2024, a human head was found floating in the water near the edge of a beach in Key Biscayne, Florida, with the rest of the body nowhere to be found. For three days, police worked tirelessly in an attempt to discover who this head belonged to and where the rest of the body ended up.
At the same time, an article written by NBC Montana stated that a missing persons report had been filed on November 9th for a 19 year old boy who had gone missing after taking a swim on the very same beach where the head was recovered. Only three days after the head was found, and six days after the missing persons report was filed, the decapitated head on the beach was confirmed to have belonged to 19 year old Victor Enrique Castaneda Jr.
One of Castaneda’s family members, Jessica Castaneda, took to facebook to express her intense grief, stating that:
“The pain I’m left with is insurmountable. My heart is completely irreparably shattered…No words could ever describe how much I love you, Victor.”
The real question though, still remains: How did this come about? According to an article written by nbcnews.com, a bystander recounts a man seeing Castaneda and his sister struggling in the water when he decided to make an attempt at helping them. The man soon realized they had been caught up in a rip tide, and thus tried to help both Castaneda and his sister, but could only help the sister. He planned to come back for Castaneda once he had gotten the girl back to safety, but to the good Samaritan’s dismay, he soon realized that Castaneda had been fully caught in the riptide and had disappeared.
Victor’s sister Hailey Clements, who was successfully rescued by the bystander, reminisced on Victor’s life saying that “Victor was a loving guy…ever since I was little, Victor always told me he would protect me and he died protecting me…I’ll never stop missing you”.
Although the story seems to end here, many people are speculating about the nature of the decapitation. Many believe it was murder, while some lean towards the idea of a boating accident or a marine animal causing the decapitation. Despite the various theories what could have led to Castaneda’s gruesome death, the cause and manner of death have not yet been released and an investigation is still ongoing.
