Body in ocean is that of man swept off Corona del Mar jetty

Authorities recovered the body of a Bay Area man from the ocean off Corona del Mar on Friday near where he and a female companion had been swept off a jetty by heavy surf earlier this week.

The body of Sean Shungfei Yeh, 53, of Fremont was discovered about 11 a.m. in the rocky shoreline waters of Inspiration Point at Corona del Mar State Beach, not far from where he and Yi Ni Kwong, 49, of Irvine disappeared while fishing early Tuesday.

Yeh’s body was identified through fingerprints, Newport Beach police spokesman Sgt. Evan Sailor said.

He and Kwong had been missing since witnesses reported seeing them swept into rough, cold waters near the entrance of Newport Harbor. Authorities later found a hat, shoes and cooler, as well as a Toyota registered to Kwong in the beach parking lot.

Kwong, who is presumed to have drowned with Yeh, leaves behind 12-year-old twins who also lost their father last year, family and neighbors said Friday.

Kwong, who lived with the children, a boy and a girl, was born in Taiwan, and her husband died last year, said her father-in-law, Y.S. Kwong.

“She’s a very private person,” added Kwong’s neighbor Sherron Ansley. “I was really surprised she was anywhere around water because she wasn’t the athletic type. I always saw her very well-coiffed, very elegant, very beautiful, very sweet.”

Ansley said Kwong’s husband died suddenly of a heart attack that he suffered last year while playing tennis.

Kwong had owned a hotel gift shop in Irvine.

“The double tragedy is for [the children] to lose their father last year and to lose their mother this year,” Ansley said. “How much tragedy can there be in one family?”

The search for Kwong’s body is continuing, authorities said Friday.

*

christopher.goffard@latimes.com

Staff writer David Haldane contributed to this report.