BELLINGHAM, Wash. >> Family and friends are mourning a Bellingham, Wash., woman who died in a shark attack during a Hawaii vacation earlier this month.

Kristine Allen, 60, vanished Dec. 8 while snorkeling off Keawa­kapu Beach in Kihei, Maui, amid sightings of an aggressive shark feeding in the area. The U.S. Coast Guard, the Maui Fire Department and ocean rescue teams searched for the woman from the water and by air to no avail, and the search was called off after 40 hours.

Allen, called “Kristi” by her friends, was a massage therapist and life coach. A memorial is planned in the future in Bellingham, according to her husband, Blake Allen.

In her last public Facebook post, Kristine Allen told friends how much she was looking forward to her upcoming vacation. “Following dreams!” she said. “I have wanted to learn to surf for years. I am committed to create a life I love in big and small ways.”

Blake Allen told state Department of Land and Natural Resources officers that he encountered an aggressive shark shortly after entering the water to snorkel with his wife about 50 yards from shore. As the shark circled him, he lost sight of his wife and thought she might have been diving toward the ocean floor, according to a DLNR report.

The man told officers the shark swam off and he continued looking for his wife, spotting something in the distance. The shark then came back, and Allen said he could see something red around its gills. People on the beach began yelling at him to get out of the water because a shark was feeding in the area, the report said.

Allen’s statement was corroborated by a witness on the beach who said he spotted a large shark feeding on something in the the middle of a “red cloud in the water.”