This is a list of fatal alligator attacks in the United States in reverse chronological order by decade. All occurred in the South, where alligators are endemic to wetlands and tidal marshes. The state of Florida, where most attacks and deaths occur, began keeping records of alligator attacks in 1948.[1]
Florida, Pinellas County, Largo, near Clearwater — A witness spotted a large alligator with a human torso clenched in its jaws in an irrigation canal. The coroner determined the victim was attacked and partially eaten by a 13' 8" alligator after recovering several of her body parts from its stomach. Peckham was homeless, and had been trespassing on wetland property less than a mile from where her remains were found. The alligator was killed by an officer. Sheriff’s Deputies released body camera footage a few months after the incident.[2][3][4]
July 4, 2023
Holly Jenkins, 69, female
South Carolina, Hilton Head Island — The victim was attacked and killed by an alligator as she was walking her dogs in her neighborhood of Spanish Wells. First responders were not immediately able to reach the victim because the alligator had crawled out of the water and was "guarding" her body.[5][6]
February 20, 2023
Gloria Serge, 85, female
Florida, Fort Pierce — The victim was walking her dog next to a pond at the Spanish Lakes Fairways retirement community. The alligator first attacked the dog and when the woman tried to save the dog, she too was attacked. The dog survived.[7][8]
August 15, 2022
Nancy Becker, 88, female
South Carolina — The victim was in her backyard in a gated Sun City community in Bluffton, and was attacked by a nearly 10-foot-long alligator. The victim's body was found being guarded by the alligator and was later recovered.[9]
July 15, 2022
Rose Marie Wiegand, 80, female
Florida, Englewood — The victim fell into a pond along a golf course and was attacked by two alligators.[10][11]
June 24, 2022
Michael Burstein, 75, male
South Carolina, Myrtle Beach — The victim was dragged into a pond. The victim's body was recovered later and a subsequent post-mortem established that Mr Burstein drowned.[12]
May 31, 2022
Sean McGuinness, 47, male
Florida, Largo — The victim was attacked while trying to retrieve frisbee golf discs in the lake at John S. Taylor Park. Police believed McGuinness had entered the lake during nighttime hours, as his body did not appear to have been in the lake for a long period when a person walking their dog discovered it along the shoreline with its arm torn off around 8:00a.m.[13]
August 30, 2021
Timothy Satterlee, 71, male
Louisiana — The victim was attacked in floodwaters of Hurricane Ida near the city of Slidell, which is just across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. The attack was witnessed by the victim's wife, who said the alligator bit his arm off.[14][15] A 12-foot-long alligator believed to have attacked Satterlee was captured and killed on September 13, 2021. Human remains were found in its stomach.[16] Although Louisiana, like Florida, has approximately 1.5 million alligators, this was Louisiana's only known fatal alligator attack.[17]
May 1, 2020
Cynthia Covert, 58, female
South Carolina — The victim was pulled under and drowned by an alligator in a pond behind a home near Salt Cedar Lane, Kiawah Island.[18][19]
South Carolina — Dragged to her death while walking her dog near a golf course in the gated community of Sea Pines in Hilton Head. Witnesses said Cline was attempting to protect her dog when the alligator pulled her into a lagoon. The dog was unharmed.[20]
June 8, 2018
Shizuka Matsuki, 47, female
Florida — Dragged to her death and dismembered while walking dogs at the Silver Lake Rotary Nature Park in Davie.[21]
July 29, 2016
Bonnie Walker, 90, female
South Carolina — Walker's body was found in a retention pond near Brookdale Senior Living Center in Charleston. According to coroners, she died from "multiple sharp and blunt force injuries" that are consistent with those inflicted by an alligator.[22]
June 14, 2016
Lane Graves, 2, male
Florida — An alligator, 4 to 7 feet long, dragged the victim under water in the Seven Seas Lagoon about 9:00p.m. on June 14, 2016, at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa just outside of Orlando. His parents tried to rescue him; the father was attacked by a second alligator. The victim's body was found nearby the next day, intact and apparently drowned.[23][24][25][26]
June 5, 2016 (on or about)
Richard Zachary Taylor, 72, male
Florida — Police recovered Taylor's body after a report of an alligator with a body in its mouth near Lake Hunter in Lakeland. A trapper responded a short time later and eventually caught the alligator. Detectives do not know whether Taylor drowned or was killed by the reptile. His body was decomposed, indicating he had been in the water a couple of days or longer. Remains found inside the alligator during a necropsy were a match to Taylor.[27]
November 13, 2015 (on or about)
Matthew Riggins, 22, male
Florida — A police dive team found the victim's body in a pond in Micco Barefoot Bay community in Brevard County ten days after he was reported missing. Riggins, who had been burglarizing homes in the area, was attacked and partially eaten by an 11-foot (3.4 meters) alligator.[28][29]
Texas — After an 11-foot alligator appeared at Burkarts Marina in Orange bystanders were told to stay out of the water. Tommie Woodward mocked the alligator and jumped into the water in close proximity to the alligator and was immediately pulled underwater; his body was later found with severe trauma to the chest. This was the first recorded fatal alligator attack in Texas since 1836.[33]
Georgia — A Canadian woman who had been house sitting for her daughter at The Landings on Skidaway Island, east of Savannah, was spotted floating in a lagoon 500 feet (200 m) behind her daughter's house. Autopsy results and a necropsy of the animal established that she had been attacked and killed by an 8-foot (2.5 m) alligator.[37][38][39]
May 14, 2006
Annemarie Campbell, 23, female
Florida — Her body was pulled out of an alligator's mouth by friends and relatives in a springhead at Juniper Wayside Park in the Ocala National Forest near Lake George in Marion County. She had been attacked while snorkeling. Autopsy results confirmed that Campbell died from drowning and multiple blunt-force injuries including lacerations on her head, neck and upper torso, and multiple rib fractures. Officials later captured and killed an 12-foot 4-inch (3.5 m), 407 pound alligator that they were able to positively identify as the one that attacked Campbell due to scratches around its eyes that she inflicted while attempting to defend herself.[40][41][42][43]
May 14, 2006
Judy W. Cooper, 43, female
Florida — Her body was found in a canal near Oldsmar in Pinellas County, 20 miles (30 km) north of St. Petersburg. She had been in the water for about three days. Preliminary autopsy results indicated a fatal alligator attack. Her arm and hand were later recovered from an 8.5-foot (2.6 m) alligator.[40][42][43]
May 10, 2006
Yovy Suarez Jiménez, 28, female
Florida — Her dismembered body was found floating in a canal between Markham County Park and State Road 84 in Sunrise. She was killed while jogging the previous evening by a 9' 6" (3 m) alligator; her arms were found in the animal's digestive tract during necropsy. and the Broward County medical examiner concluded that she was attacked on land and dragged into the canal.[40][42][43][44]
Florida — Fishermen discovered Owen's body about 12 miles (19 km) from his Lakeland home. He had been missing since March 9. Trappers later caught an 8' 9" (2.7 m) alligator and recovered some of Owen's body parts.[44]
September 26, 2004
Michelle Reeves, 20, female
Florida — She was killed by a 7' 11" (2.4 m) alligator while swimming in a retention pond at Lee Memorial Health Park in Lee County.[44][46]
June 21, 2004
Janie Melsek, 54, female
Florida — She was attacked by a 12' 3" (3.7 m) alligator while working on landscaping along Poinciana Circle Sanibel. She later died in surgery from an infection acquired from being in the water with open wounds.[44][46][47]
June 18, 2003
Brian Griffin, 12, male
Florida — He was killed by a 10' 4" (3.1 m) alligator while swimming in the Dead River near a boat ramp; the river connects Lakes Harris and Eustis in Lake County.[44][46][48]
Florida — He was killed in a pond near his residence in Venice, Sarasota County by an 8' 4" (2.5 m) alligator. Wetmore suffered from dementia and had wandered from his home.[44][46]
Florida — He was killed by an 11-foot (3.4 m) alligator after straying outside a roped-off area in Lake Ashby, Volusia County. Wildlife officials shot the alligator, which was still holding the lifeless body of the boy 20 hours later.[44][46]
October 3, 1993
Grace Eberhart, 70, female
Florida — She was killed by one or more alligators at Lake Serenity, Sumter County. She died of a broken neck caused by an alligator bite to the throat and head.[44][46]
June 19, 1993
Bradley Weidenhamer, 10, male
Florida — He was killed while wading in the Loxahatchee River at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County.[44][46]
Florida — He had been missing several days from his Eau Gallie home, when his body was discovered by the Civil Air Patrol on the banks of Horse Creek, and parts of his body were found inside an alligator destroyed by authorities.[50][51][52]
Florida — A 16-year-old was attacked by an alligator while swimming in a creek near Jacksonville. He managed to swim out of the creek but died on the shore.[53]
April or June 1836
Gray B. King, male
Texas — A settler from Nashville traveling with his family and slaves was seized and pulled under by an alligator after jumping into the river to push free a ferry which had run aground. Sources describe the location as Double Bay (just below Anahuac), Buffalo Bayou, or the Trinity River.[54][55][56]
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