A South Carolina girl was killed by a 9-foot, 8-inch alligator after she fell right into a pond on Aug. 15. The gator, which was identified to residents, was faraway from the lagoon and euthanized the identical day.
Nancy Becker was a resident of Solar Metropolis Hilton Head, a big group positioned simply inland from Hilton Head Island in Beaufort County. Authorities consider the 88-year-old girl was gardening exterior her residence on the time, and that her fall was an accident, in line with the New York Occasions. After they arrived on the scene after a late-morning name from one other Solar Metropolis resident, the alligator was reportedly guarding her physique.
The Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston carried out an post-mortem Tuesday morning, throughout which they dominated the reason for dying as blunt pressure trauma attributable to the alligator, in line with Beaufort county coroner David Ott.
Neighbors keep in mind Becker as a sort girl who had survived each her husband, Don, and their white poodle, Muffin.
“She was a beautiful woman,” neighbor Bruce Iler advised The Island Packet. “Simply pleasant and a genial spirit.”
This marks the fourth identified time that an individual within the U.S. has been killed by an alligator in lower than 11 weeks. A Florida man was killed whereas retrieving a frisbee from Taylor Lake on Could 31. One other man was dragged right into a retaining pond in Myrtle Seaside, South Carolina, on June 24, and one other girl fell right into a pond with two alligators close to her residence in Englewood, Florida, on July 15.
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Alligator breeding season begins in April and lasts via June. Females lay eggs in late June or early July, and hatching season lasts via September. This lengthy stretch from late spring to early fall marks the alligator’s most energetic time of 12 months. Nevertheless it’s additionally arguably essentially the most energetic time for people, when outside time will increase and proximity to water is commonplace, particularly in hotter areas the place the reptiles are inclined to reside. South Carolina permits for the searching of alligators starting in September, and Florida’s alligator searching season opened on August 15.
“Alligator assaults are uncommon however not stunning,” Maj. Angela Viens, public data officer for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Workplace, advised the New York Occasions concerning the space. That is the second encounter to happen on the residing group in 5 years, however the first deadly one. Solar Metropolis Hilton Head declined to remark.
