A Florida man died after a sand dune collapsed on him as he was recording a sunrise from a beach on the Atlantic Coast, a sheriff spokesman said Monday.
The 35-year-old man was found dead Sunday on Hutchinson Island by someone who saw part of his body sticking from the sand, the Martin County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.
Sheriff William Snyder told the NBC affiliate WPTV of West Palm Beach that he was there, inexplicably, we don't know why that beach erosion mountain of sand collapsed on him.
The sheriff's office said on Monday that investigators believe the man was recording the sunrise and resting beneath a sand dune when he collapsed.
The man was known to record sunsets at the beach, the sheriff told WPTV. He was a resident of Stuart, a nearby town, the sheriff's office said.
Investigators think he died hours before he was found.
At least two other people have died this year in incidents involving collapsing sand at dunes or beaches, but those involved in digging into the sand.
A 13-year-old boy died in Utah in May after a tunnel he dug into a sandy dune collapsed at a state park. An 18-year-old died after a hole in a New Jersey beach collapsed.