HILTON HEAD, SOUTH CAROLINA: A 69-year-old South Carolina woman has died after being viciously mauled by a 10-foot-long alligator near her home. The woman, who has not yet been identified, was walking her dog on Tuesday, July 4 when the predator attacked her near a lagoon bordering Spanish Wells Golf Club on Hilton Head Island.
Beaufort County Sheriff's Office deputies, Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue, the Beaufort County Coroner's Office, and Spanish Wells security personnel responded to the scene at around 9:28 am after receiving reports of a possible alligator attack. Upon their arrival, first responders found the victim unresponsive at the edge of the lagoon but they weren’t able to reach her as the alligator was guarding her mutilated body. "Rescue efforts were made and an alligator appeared and was guarding the woman, interrupting emergency efforts," the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office said, according to Daily Mail.
‘Keep grandma away from the swamp’
After a while, the male gator was safely removed from the area and the woman’s body was eventually recovered. Despite the official’s life-saving efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene. Deputies also found her dog, who is now in good health, the sheriff’s office told The Post. The Beaufort County Coroner's Office is expected to perform an autopsy on the woman on Wednesday. The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources tweeted Tuesday that its “biologists and officers are responding” to the incident. Tuesday’s incident was the second fatal alligator attack in Beaufort County in less than a year, according to the sheriff’s office.
The 69-year-old woman’s death sparked a fierce debate online, with one user saying, "The simple answer is don't go into the Gator's home." "Gators, Sharks, pythons are all looking at humans as their new food source," a second user fumed while the third wrote, "Umm. Maybe we should keep grandma away from the swamp?" "They need to have seasonal alligator hunts to control the population. There probably are too many alligators roaming the swamp lands and waterways. If they aren't vital for the ecosystem start getting control of them. This is just like the belief that shark attacks don't happen," another user asserted. "Gators are land sharks. Totally wild, fiercely unpredictable, and go for an easy meal whenever wherever. Opportunistic animals," one more user claimed.
‘We keep jamming down'
Tuesday’s incident came amid a sudden rise in alligator encounters and attacks across the US, especially in Florida and South Carolina. Up until 2022, South Carolina saw few alligator attacks; nevertheless, that year, the state reported five alligator attacks, of which two were deadly. Frank Robb, an expert on the prehistoric predator, said he believes that the state's growing population and a number of developments are to blame for the rise. "The more Florida expands, the more people we get into Florida, the more people we keep jamming down here we're building on a lot of areas that are surrounding marsh areas and wild areas," Robb told FOX35.
In August 2022, Nancy Ann Jackson Becker, 88, died after being mauled by an alligator outside her Sun City Hilton Head residence. In less than 11 weeks, she became the fourth person in the nation to die as a result of an alligator attack, making four fatalities in only 76 days. The retirement community in South Carolina was sued after the woman was killed in the alligator attack that her family claims was preventable, according to the lawsuit filed in Beaufort County. In February of this year, an 85-year-old woman was mauled to death while attempting to free her dog from an alligator's grasp in a pond in Florida.
