Mystery as bloody false legs appear at memorial for Cape Cod shark attack victim

Police are trying to work out who is leaving graphic false legs at the memorial for a surfer who died in a shark attack in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, last year – and why they are doing it.

Three fake legs have been found so far at the memorial to 26-year-old Arthur Medici, a Brazilian engineering student who was killed by a shark last September while surfing near Newcomb Hollow Beach.

Local authorities have said they are unsure what the motive is behind the placements of the legs, the latest of which depicted a bloody stump at one end with shattered bones poking out.

Another included a blood coated gash running down the side, and was attached to a cool box reportedly filled with cement.

Medici was pulled from the water by his friend Isaac Rocha after being dragged under the ocean by a shark off the coast of Wellfleet beach in Cape Cod, near Boston.

Mr Rocha had tied a makeshift tourniquet around the victim’s leg after dragging him 40 yards onto the beach, The Boston Globe reported at the time.

Mr Medici died later that day at Cape Cod Hospital in the nearby town of Hyannis, the first fatal shark attack in the state of Massachusetts for more than 80 years.

Mr Medici’s memorial stone was placed on the beach shortly after his death and inscribed with the words “shred in heaven”.

Lt Michael Hurley of the Wellfleet police department, told local media: “It’s hard for us to make any type of educated decision or guesses.”

Noting there was no vandalism involved in the leaving of the legs, two of which are being held by the department, he added: “To be honest, what criminal charge would even be there at the moment?”