CANBERRA, Australia — Police confirmed that a boy who vanished from an Australian river edge was attacked and eaten by a crocodile.
Remains of 5-year-old Jeremy Doble were found in the stomach of a 14-foot male crocodile trapped in the flooded Daintree River — an international attraction for ecotourists — near where the boy had vanished on Feb. 8, a police statement said late Tuesday.
Jeremy had been playing with his 7-year-old brother, Ryan, and their dog behind their family property in a flooded mangrove swamp when he disappeared.
The killer crocodile, whose stomach contents were examined by a nonlethal surgical procedure, will be sent to a crocodile farm or zoo. The victim’s parents run a crocodile- spotting tourism business and reportedly asked authorities not to kill the culprit.
