Despite being a not very skilled swimmer, I love being in the water. Whenever we take a trip to the beach as a family, I’m always running to the water after everything’s set up. Does the hotel have a pool? It better if you want me staying in it. With that love also comes a heavy dose of respect, because nothing terrifies me as much as water does. Aside from being a powerful force itself, it is also home to many creatures that could deliver my demise. That stark reality is one a family is facing after losing Michigan mom and grandmom Arlene Lillis.
According to the New York Post, the 56-year-old was swimming off Drosch Beach on St. Croix about 4:30 p.m. on January 8, 2026, when a nearby witness heard “ungodly screaming.”
Christopher Carroll, a vacationing Utah nurse and former lifeguard, heard the screams from his second-floor hotel room and sprinted to the water after spotting Lillis floating about 10 yards from the beach in a pool of blood.
“She was talking,” Carroll explained to the St. Thomas Source of the harrowing incident. “I just kept trying to reassure her.”
Carroll was assisted by another good Samaritan vacationer from Nebraska, Ryan Cannot, who was trained in CPR.
The rescuers noticed that her arm had been bitten off below the elbow before the two learned her name and were left with her chilling final words: Carroll claims she told him, “I’m going to die.”
After she was rushed to a hospital via ambulance, she succumbed to her wounds.
“Our hearts are with the family and loved ones of the victim, and with everyone who witnessed this tragedy,” US Virgin Islands Governor Bryan shared in a statement. “We have been briefed on the information known at this time, and we are grateful to the bystanders who acted immediately to render aid and to the first responders who worked urgently and bravely in an effort to save her life.”
Neither rescuer saw the shark, but the U.S. Sun reported that the Virgin Islands Consortium confirmed it was last seen in the same general area where Lillis was attacked.
Lillis wasn’t just a vacationer; she was a winter resident on the island last year, according to her neighbor Andrew Gamble, who described her as a “proud” mom and new grandmother.
“Arlene was active and fun-loving, and above all she was genuinely kind,” Gamble told ABC News. “She loved hiking, the water, and snorkeling, and she had a deep love for animals.”
