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AVON, N.C. — A body that washed up Friday morning in the Outer Banks is that of Erik Mezick, the Maryland man whose box truck plunged off the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel more than three months ago.
His family announced the news through “Finding Erik Mezick,” a Facebook page they created after the Dec. 29 accident. In the months since Mezick went missing, his body drifted more than 100 miles before it came to rest on the beach between the villages of Salvo and Avon.
A resident reported finding the body of a male at 9:14 a.m. on the beach within the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It appeared to have been in the ocean for a long time, according to a release from the seashore.
About 1 p.m., Mezick’s family posted that they’d been told it was him.
“We said he would present himself when he was ready and in true Eric style he did just that today on his favorite beach,” the post said.
When reached by phone, Mezick’s brother, Kevin Mezick, declined to comment, aside from confirming that the body was his brother’s.
“It’s him,” he said.
The cause of the accident still hasn’t been determined. Conditions were windy that day on the CBBT but not enough to trigger traffic restrictions.
Erik Mezick, 47, was heading north on the 17-mile span, driving a 20-foot box truck on a delivery run for Baltimore-based Cloverland Greenspring Dairy. His truck crashed through the guard rail around 8:20 a.m. near milepost 14, about three-quarters of the way across, plummeting into frigid waters.
Witnesses saw him outside the cab, floating on the surface. He appeared unresponsive and was drifting west toward the bay when he went under.
Multiple agencies searched for him, covering nearly 200 square miles. Debris from the truck washed ashore days later in Virginia Beach.
After the Coast Guard suspended the initial hunt, Mezick’s family kept going, hoping to at least recover his body. Kevin Mezick, aided by volunteers, spent countless hours on boats, combing the water and shorelines.
“He’s my brother,” Kevin said at the time. “I know he would do the exact same thing for me.”
But bodies that sink in cold water — in the mid-40s that day — tend to stay down, with temperatures delaying the decomposition that eventually brings them up. In January, a dive-rescue team brought a side-scan sonar from Maryland to scour a likely area, peering into the depths with no luck.
Experienced searchers predicted that Erik Mezick’s remains, if they were found, wouldn’t surface until warmer weather returned. And by then, they said, currents and storms could have moved it a long way.
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During the winter, ocean currents flow predominately north to south. Friday’s discovery on the sand north of Avon was roughly 120 miles down the coast from where he went overboard.
“I’m not really surprised about that, but very relieved,” said Ben Shepherd, a Virginia Beach charter boat captain who spent weeks searching for Mezick.
Mezick, who lived near Salisbury, Maryland, was a family man. He and Megan, his wife of more than 20 years, have two teenage children.
According to CBBT records, Mezick’s was the 16th over-the-side accident on the span. Most have been deadly, with bodies typically recovered within hours or a few days.
Mezick’s remains will be transferred to the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office.
Jeff Hampton, 757-446-2090, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com
Joanne Kimberlin, 757-446-2338, joanne.kimberlin@pilotonline.com