A missing, suicidal woman last believed to be aboard a blazing boat was discovered dead inside the vessel five days later, authorities said Tuesday.
State fire marshal investigators found the body of Nikki Shriver, 31, on an interior bench beneath a cushion Monday, according to Daytona Beach police spokesman Messod Bendayan. Fire damage concealed her remains from first responders during their June 5 search of the 1979 Morgan Craft sailboat, he said. Shriver’s death “appears to be suicide,” Daytona Beach police Chief Craig Capri said. “It’s definitely not a homicide.”
Capri noted that the autopsy report revealed “no trauma” and that the cause of death seems to be smoke inhalation.
“Unfortunately she had a history of mental illness,” Capri said.
Shriver was identified as the same Deltona woman who went missing in the Tiger Bay Forest for four days in June 2018, according to police. She was taken into custody under Florida’s Baker Act for a mental health evaluation following that incident.