Woman found dismembered by alligator in canal

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CentralFlGal
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Woman found dismembered by alligator in canal

#1 Postby CentralFlGal » Fri May 12, 2006 8:36 pm

By Meghan Meyer

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 12, 2006

SUNRISE — Under a mess of highway overpasses where the Broward County suburbs meet the Everglades, a pig's lung tied to an empty soda bottle bobbed gently in a canal on Thursday afternoon.

Trappers hoped to catch an alligator with this bait, the alligator that killed a jogger early Wednesday.

They caught one later that night. Officials planned to do a necropsy today to find out whether the 7-foot-long alligator was the one that had killed 28-year-old Yovy Suarez Jimenez, said officer Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Suarez was the first person killed by an alligator in Broward County, and only the 18th in the state since the fish and wildlife commission started keeping records in the 1940s.

Despite a burgeoning population of both alligators and people, attacks have remained rare. In most cases, the victim swam in or walked near lakes or canals where alligators lived — in Florida, that's nearly any body of water except the ocean or Gulf of Mexico.

No one saw the attack on Suarez, and its details will are likely to stay a mystery. Still, officials took the opportunity to remind the public to be careful around the water.

"People have to learn to live with alligators," fish and wildlife investigator Skip Trubey said. "Give them a wide berth. Leave them alone."

Suarez, 28, left her home in a nearby mobile home park to go for a jog around 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sunrise police said. A path, popular with joggers and bicyclists, runs along State Road 84, separated from the canal by a dusty patch of gravel about 8 feet wide.

It runs through an area that wildlife officials have designated "open harvest" for alligators because it's so close to homes. That means trappers can remove any alligators they find, in an attempt to prevent them from bothering people, said biologist Lindsey Hord, who is the commission's statewide coordinator for nuisance alligators.

In the past year, trappers hadn't taken any alligators from the canal.

Officials couldn't track down witnesses who had earlier reported seeing someone matching Suarez's description dangling her feet over the canal, Pino said.

Investigators can't be sure that's when the attack occurred. The evidence showed Suarez was attacked by an 8- to 10-foot-long alligator very close to the water. Investigators didn't find pools of blood on the canal bank or on land nearby.

"She was pulled in, in my opinion," said Joshua Perper, chief medical examiner for Broward County. "If she had been dragged I would have expected to see grazing marks."

She died quickly, Perper said, of massive blood loss after the alligator broke one of her legs, ripped off one arm, and then the other. She didn't drown — Perper didn't find much water in her lungs.

He couldn't pinpoint an exact time of death, but said it happened sometime Wednesday morning, hours before the body, clothed in a jogging bra, shorts and sneakers, was recovered.

As Suarez's family prepared to file a missing-persons report Wednesday, they saw a story on the news about a body found in the canal near their home.

Construction workers saw the body Wednesday afternoon and called Sunrise police, who sent a team of divers to recover it. Her family identified her from photos.

Trubey suspected the alligator had been fed, and had lost its fear of humans. Wildlife officials have had problems with people feeding alligators near boat ramps despite signs warning them not to. There is a boat ramp several blocks from where Suarez's body was found.

While feeding alligators might make them lose some of their wariness, it doesn't mean an alligator that has never even seen a human won't try to attack it, Hord said. Usually, they will keep to themselves and shy away from people. But they are predators by nature. Under the right circumstances, a 10-foot alligator might see a human as prey. People living near canals, lakes and ponds must heed that, and be careful, he said.

"There's not necessarily a reason for an alligator to attack a person," Hord said. "They're predators. Predators eat things. That's not often something we're comfortable with, whether it's one of us or our pets."

Alligators tend to wander in May, the peak of mating season.

And while this attack happened near the Everglades, Hord said, that doesn't mean that city dwellers should throw caution to the wind. Alligators live everywhere. When developers build homes and golf courses on their swamp habitat, they'll move into the canals.

On Tuesday, a 5-foot-long alligator sunk its teeth into a 74-year-old retiree's ankle in Punta Gorda. She beat him off with a garden hose. Late last month, a 9-foot-long alligator attacked a man diving for stray balls in a golf course lake near Boynton Beach. He fought off the gator with a knife. It was later captured and killed.

"They're very adaptable animals," Hord said. "They have no problem living around us. It's up to the individual what tolerance he has for living around alligators."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/local_news/epaper/2006/05/12/c1a_GATOR_0512.html
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#2 Postby Janice » Fri May 12, 2006 8:41 pm

Oh, that is horrible. I am surprised with Katrina that more alligators didn't get shifted around and kill people.
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#3 Postby O Town » Fri May 12, 2006 9:01 pm

And that is why I don't like swimming up and down the Weikva river anymore. Seems this is happening more than ever in recent years, and it scares the pants off of me. Prayers going out to that poor womans family, how horrible. :cry:
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#4 Postby CentralFlGal » Sat May 13, 2006 11:14 pm

O Town wrote:And that is why I don't like swimming up and down the Weikva river anymore. Seems this is happening more than ever in recent years, and it scares the pants off of me.


I live near the Little Wekiva on the Seminole/Orange county line; you won't catch me anywhere near the riverbanks, that's for sure. The young boys in the neighborhood... well, that's another story.

Took my kidlets to the Sanford Zoo last week... they have a humongous alligator there. It was resting just under the weeds at the enclosure's edge - you could hardly see it. I let my 5 year old try to find it - and this thing is huge - but it was very well camoflaged.

Was the perfect opportunity for a lesson in respecting these dinosaurs' habitats and staying safe when water is nearby. I don't want her to be scared out of her wits, but I would like her to exercise a healthy amount of caution when we're around their environment (and all of Florida is pretty much their environment).

We had a gator in our driveway at our old house. Only had 3 legs and was pretty far from any water source (still not sure how it got there). It seemed lethargic until the guy from the wildlife commission tried to get the noose thingie around its neck - then it shot off like lightning. These animals are too unpredictable, and yet humans in developed areas toss food in the water for them to make matters worse. :roll:

So, no freshwater for my family unless it's got a concrete bottom (and even then we check before getting in). On a sidenote, the saltwater is a teeny bit better. My eldest took up surfing last year. She already has a few shark stories under her belt and my fingernails are bitten down to the nubs. One of her surfing companions rode a wave in that she decided to wait out. After he jumped off, he thought his board bumped him in the chest. He picked it up, but it wasn't his board. After he realized that he literally caught a shark with his bare hands, he freaked and started screaming. Scared the living poo out of the fish, and definitely avoided the second round of this attack - the bite. My daughter paddled in VERY quickly.

She keeps reassuring me that it would be worse if we lived in Australia where both sharks and crocs are found in the same areas. Yes dear, that makes mommy feel MUCH better. :eek:
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#5 Postby Aslkahuna » Sun May 14, 2006 2:04 am

Q: Did the alligator call Police when it found the dismembered woman in the canal?

Steve
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#6 Postby Janice » Sun May 14, 2006 5:35 am

I wonder how many bodies/people are actually taken by alligators that authorities never find or know about?
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#7 Postby Lindaloo » Sun May 14, 2006 10:31 am

Aslkahuna wrote:Q: Did the alligator call Police when it found the dismembered woman in the canal?

Steve


I was wondering the same thing. Seems like it is easier to blame the gator? She could have been attacked and dumped there.
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#8 Postby Janice » Sun May 14, 2006 11:31 am

Lindaloo and Steve ... Sherlock Holmes and Columbo....good going , guys.

And to think they blamed the poor innocent alligator who was just probably jogging along when he came upon the dead body.....
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#9 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Sun May 14, 2006 3:37 pm

Janice wrote:Oh, that is horrible. I am surprised with Katrina that more alligators didn't get shifted around and kill people.


Local rumor has it that quite a lot of the more than 1500 still missing could very well have wound up this way.

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#10 Postby Audrey2Katrina » Sun May 14, 2006 3:39 pm

Lindaloo wrote:
Aslkahuna wrote:Q: Did the alligator call Police when it found the dismembered woman in the canal?

Steve


I was wondering the same thing. Seems like it is easier to blame the gator? She could have been attacked and dumped there.


Ahhh, the misplaced modifier. You would THINK a journalist would know better!

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#11 Postby Janice » Sun May 14, 2006 3:51 pm

Yes, as gross as it may be, I am sure that misplaced alligators coming across corpses, would eat them. I guess it is just nature at work.
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