Miami – The bodies of two women, both apparently killed by alligators, were found less than a week after a similar death in a state that had seen just 17 confirmed fatal attacks by the animals in the past 57 years.
A 23-year-old woman staying at a secluded cabin near a spring that feeds into Lake George was attacked while snorkeling at a lakeside recreation area, Marion County Fire-Rescue Capt. Joe Amigliore said Sunday. The lake is about 50 miles southeast of Gainesville.
“The people she was staying with came around and found her inside the gator’s mouth,” Amig liore said. “They jumped into the water and somehow pulled her out of the gator’s mouth.”
The woman, whose name was not released, was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities were searching for the alligator Sunday night.
The death of another woman whose body was found early Sunday in a canal 20 miles north of St. Petersburg also was blamed on an alligator, Pinellas County authorities said.
She suffered bites that were consistent with an alligator, which “did play some part in the victim’s death,” according to a preliminary autopsy.
It was not known why Judy Cooper, 43, of Dunedin was in the area where wildlife officials said alligators are frequently spotted.
On Wednesday, construction workers found the dismembered body of Florida Atlantic University student Yovy Suarez Jimenez, 28, in a canal near Fort Lauderdale. Authorities captured a 9-foot alligator Saturday and found two human arms inside its stomach.
A medical examiner concluded that Jimenez was attacked near the canal bank and dragged into the water.
