Long After the Shark Died, the Rumor Lived

People linked to the earliest exchanges of the message, identified by investigators and rooted out by reporters, said they did not know its source and only passed it on. The incredible nature of the incident -- of a man wrestling a big bull shark to shore -- cast doubt on it, said people here on the coast. The e-mail account ''seemed reasonable,'' said Eddie Stewart, who owns a cellular telephone store in Gulf Breeze and has lived on the coast all his life.

''It made sense to me that they could have been doing that,'' he said, referring to shark fishing. He passed the e-mail message on to four other people.

As the message circulated, Jessie slowly improved. His reattached arm and a badly cut leg healed, and he gradually resurfaced from the coma. Doctors said the boy would probably be left with cognitive defects -- from the blood loss to the brain caused by his wounds.

Neither Jessie's immediate family nor Mr. Flosenzier, an engineer, have talked about the events at all. But another uncle, Joe Boney, said that Jessie was getting better. ''He's doing wonderful,'' said Mr. Boney, a battalion chief in the Biloxi Fire Department. ''He can move his arms and legs and he's standing up pretty well, with help. He knows who you are and what you're saying. He says a couple of words here and there.''

Mr. Boney said the family had tried to ignore the e-mail rumor. ''The family knows what happened,'' he said. ''It's a miracle. That's all that matters.''

What investigators and people here on the gulf coasts of Florida, Alabama and Mississippi cannot understand is why someone would take the time to fabricate such a story.

It was like the schoolyard game of rumor, in which one child whispers something into the ear of a child sitting in a circle of children, who then, one by one, pass it along. Then, the last child repeats what she heard. The fun is in seeing how much the story changed along the way.