The heartbroken husband of a woman killed by a 13ft shark without anyone noticing has opened up about her tragic death.
On April 3, 2014, Christine Armstrong was out enjoying her routine morning swim with her husband and four friends.
The group was heading from Tathra Wharf to Tathra Beach in New South Wales when the 63-year-old started suffering from spinal problems and had to turn back early.
Unfortunately, that one decision would cost her her life.
Christine's husband, Rob, and friends assumed that she had made it back to dry land but once they got back to shore, they realized they couldn’t find her.
While there, “Rob saw a seagull flying close to his head and immediately looked up - seagulls, of course, being a warning sign of large fish or sharks,” Bega police inspector Jason Edmunds later revealed to ABC News.
Rob also saw a fin, telling the outlet: "I stopped and the fin started coming up and I thought: dolphin? No, that's not a dolphin."
According to SBS News, the group noticed that Christine wasn't in the changing rooms either so they got on an inflatable rescue boat and discovered her swimming cap and goggles floating in the water.
In a statement released by her family, Christine was described as "very loved by many people," as cited by The Mirror.
"She has been swimming at Tathra Beach for 14 years and was an experienced and committed member of the surf club," her family said. "She was a senior surf club trainer for many years and swimming brought her much joy and many friends."
"She will be sadly missed by all who loved her, especially by Rob, her husband of 44 years," they added.
Rob and Christine were teenage sweethearts from Western Australia.
The bereaved husband believes that his wife was swallowed whole by the large predator, with onlookers from the beach reporting seeing a 10-13-foot shark close to the surface of the water near the time of the harrowing attack.
He has managed to find peace in the fact that his partner of 44 years, who was an experienced swimmer, had suffered a quick death, saying that she "would not have known what had hit her".
"The shark was such a size and it's consumed her basically completely - she wouldn't have even known it happened," he said, per The Mirror.
A few days after Christine's untimely death, Rob took a dip in the area she had loved to swim in, which has now become her final resting place.
Rob told ABC News at the time that if he doesn't "face this now it will be worse later," explaining: "So I need to face it now, and that's why I'm exposing myself as much as I am. It will make it better later, and I know that."
He then disclosed that he and Christine tragically lost a daughter when they were younger, and it "bound [them] together, inseparably".
"We didn't face it as well as we should have, because everyone told us to get on with our lives and not mourn. I know now how bad that was, and I know how important it is now to face this and to get rid of the grief," he said.
"I know it will never go away, but it'll just get shorter," Rob concluded.
