The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating after an 85-year-old woman was killed by an alligator while walking her dog in Fort Pierce.
It happened around noon in the Spanish Lakes Fairways community. Neighbors say the 10-foot alligator lunged out of the water and grabbed her. A short time later, trappers found the gator lurking at the bottom of the lake and pulled it out.
“Snagged him on the bottom. He never surfaced. He stayed down the whole time,” Robert Lilly, Nuisance Alligator Trapper, said. “Got a second hook in him and then a hard line in him so we could get him up.”
Lilly said it was “definitely a fight,” as the reptile weighed between 600 and 700 pounds.
“The FWC places the highest priority on public safety and administers a Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) to address complaints concerning specific alligators believed to pose a threat to people, pets or property.”
