While the cause of death remains unknown pending an autopsy report from the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s office, the dead man discovered on the beach strand at Wrightsville Beach Friday, Oct. 17, was identified as Daniel G. Lloyd.
Wrightsville Beach Police Chief Dan House issued a statement Monday, Oct. 13, stating Lloyd was a 50-year-old man. That same day Diana Zeunen, WBPD assistant to the chief, said Lloyd had no registered address.
During his routine morning patrol of the beach strand, Wrightsville Beach park ranger Shannon Slocum discovered Lloyd around 8:25 a.m. lying face down on a blanket near the dune line immediately south of Public Beach Access No. 31 at Chadbourn Street. Lloyd was found shirtless, wearing only gray shorts with a bag, shoes and water bottle by his head.
With no form of identification or car keys found nearby, WBPD had to rely on a Bible found with Lloyd to identify him. Written inside the Bible were the names of family members, one being Lloyd’s brother, who lives in Wilmington.
Around 4:30 p.m. Friday, House believed his investigators had narrowed the identity to one person based on the names in the Bible and Lloyd’s description from prior arrests in Wilmington.
While House was not certain of Lloyd’s full arrest history, he said Lloyd had been arrested on drug-related charges in Wilmington previously.
Although Lloyd was found with very little money, on Tuesday, Oct. 21, House said investigators found a taxicab receipt on his person and learned Lloyd was at Halligan’s Public House in Lumina Station before being dropped off by a taxi at Stone Street around 3 a.m. Friday, Oct. 17.
Park ranger Shannon Slocum said he remembered seeing Lloyd sitting on the beach between 3-5 p.m. that afternoon in the same place he was found dead the next morning.
After investigating the scene, House said none of his investigators suspected foul play because Lloyd did not have any marks on his body indicating an assault and no blood was found at the scene.
Lloyd’s body was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Jacksonville Friday, Oct. 17, and House said it could take up to one month to receive the coroner’s report with full toxicology reports and an exact cause of death. House said he suspected Lloyd’s death was due to natural causes, like a heart attack or stroke.
email [email protected]
