 Previous Florida alligator attacks
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- May 2001: An 8-foot alligator repeatedly attacked a 70-year-old
Sarasota man who suffered dementia and was thought to have wandered away
from his home in southern Sarasota. Samuel Wetmore was found dead in a
retention pond.
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- August 2000: Alvis McCree, 33, was fishing at Orlando's
Clear Lake when a 7-foot alligator bit him. McCree woke up a few hours
later with a missing shoe. He was stretched out in a patch of weeds with
cuts and scrapes on his body. The gator was bagged by a trapper.
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- September 1999: A Kissimmee couple skinny-dipping and
reciting poetry after a few beers had the romantic moment interrupted when
an alligator clamped down on Deirdre Dozois' leg. The 45-year-old housekeeper
escaped when her boyfriend, Stuart Chandler, pried the gator loose. Doctors
pieced her calf together with 75 stitches. Trappers destroyed the alligator
the next day.
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- June 1998: A 5-year-old girl was injured when she was
attacked by an alligator while swimming in a lake behind her Polk County
home. Sarah Ashley Martin and her father, Stephen, were in 3 to 4 feet
of water in Skyview Lake when an alligator pulled the girl under. The 10-foot
reptile bit her on the right forearm and right collarbone, then released
her. Trappers searched the lake but could not find the alligator.
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- March 1997: A 3-year-old New Smyrna Beach boy was killed
by a 450-pound alligator that grabbed him and dragged him into Lake Ashby
in Volusia County as he walked on the shore with his dog. The 11-foot gator
was attracted by the dog, officials think. Adam Trevor Binford was pulled
under the surface and drowned. Wildlife officials shot the alligator, which
was still holding the boy's body 20 hours later.
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- October 1993: A 70-year-old woman who lived at the Continental
Country Club in Sumter County fell into a lake of alligators and was killed.
Grace Virginia Eberhart had been taking medication for pain she suffered
from bouts with cancer. The alligators bit her head, breaking her neck
and jaw, and tore off her arms.
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- WINTER HAVEN - Alexandria
Murphy had lived in the working-class neighborhood of 25th Street for only
a few weeks, but the 2-year-old was already known as a wanderer.
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- Neighbors had found the girl whose mother called her
Allie in their yards, down the block and heading toward the street.
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- On Saturday, the 32-pound girl toddled 700 feet to the
edge of Lake Cannon, where a 75-pound alligator lay waiting.
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- "A 2-year-old is no match for an alligator,"
Polk County Medical Examiner Stephen Nelson said Monday after performing
an autopsy on the child's body.
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- Nelson said Alexandria had "multiple bites in the
upper extremities and face, and several bones were broken." He said
the attack probably happened in the water, and the cause of death was drowning.
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- It was the second fatal gator attack this year and the
12th since 1948. About 1.5 million alligators live in Florida, and 287
attacks against humans have been recorded in the past 52 years.
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- Alexandria's body was found an hour after her mother
and grandmother reported her missing Saturday. The 6-foot alligator was
lying next to her on the shoreline, her hair in its mouth.
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- The child's family has left the neighborhood and could
not be contacted Monday.
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- "It's a mom's worst nightmare," said Debbie
Velez, a mother of five whose husband, Abner, joined the search for Alexandria.
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- Food attracts wildlife
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- The alligator, which was captured and killed, showed
no fear of man, said Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission.
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- "The gator probably saw the little girl as a food
source," Hill said.
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- Wildlife officials said Lake Cannon gators have lost
their fear of humans because people have been feeding them.
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- Neighbors Monday disputed claims that the gators were
being fed. But they did agree that some residents do feed the ducks that
waddle along the shore of the 400- to 600-acre lake, which is home to about
two dozen alligators.
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- That, and people throwing back fish parts, could be enough
for an alligator to associate people with food, said Gary Morse, a spokesman
for the wildlife commission.
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- Alligators normally aren't aggressive and bite only if
they think something is food. They also may chomp down on someone or something
that inadvertently brushes against them, "but then they usually let
go if its not something they want to eat," Hill said.
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- Neighbors: Child often on her own
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- It wasn't the alligators that were upsetting people in
the Lake Cannon neighborhood Monday. It was the fact, they said, that Alexandria
was frequently unsupervised.
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- Sue Ailor, who lives near the girl's family, said the
child was allowed to wander around the neighborhood and last week was found
alone at a nearby intersection, where she was almost hit by a car.
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- Bruce Kelley and his girlfriend, Melissa Gilbert, who
live down the street from Alexandria's home, said that about a month ago
they found the child wandering in their yard and walked her back to her
house.
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- Touchy time of year for gators
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- Alligators are at the top of the food chain in Florida
lakes and swamps, said Mike Hileman, entertainment manager at Gatorland,
an attraction featuring hundreds of alligators. "For them it's eat
or be eaten," he said.
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- But they usually run from humans because of our height,
Hileman said.
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- "Even a large gator is only about 3 feet tall, so
we look like telephone poles to them," he said. "That's our biggest
asset -- our size. That's why they have a natural fear of us."
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- Gators are naturally grumpy at this time of year. Mating
season started in April, and this month females are laying eggs, which
will hatch in late August.
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- "There's a lot of tension building up," Hileman
said. "It's a bad time to be a gator."
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- The creatures play an important role in Florida's ecosystem
by dragging "gator holes," which in the dry season may be the
only source of water for other wildlife. They also prey on raccoons and
opossums, which helps safeguard bird populations.
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- April Hunt can be reached at 407-931-5930 or ahunt@orlandosentinel.com
and Ramsey Campbell can be reached at 352-742-5923 or rcampbell@orlandosentinel.com.
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