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]
| Date | Victim | Location — Circumstances |
|---|---|---|
| September 23, 2023 | Sabrina Peckham, 41, female | 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 8:00 a.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] |
| Date | Victim | Location — Circumstances |
|---|---|---|
| August 20, 2018 | Cassandra Cline, 45, female | 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 9:00 p.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] |
| October 19, 2015 | James Okkerse, 62, male | Florida — Okkerse was killed while swimming/snorkeling by a 12-foot (3.7 meters) alligator at Blue Spring State Park near Orange City. The final cause of death was determined by the Volusia County medical examiner's office in consultation with a forensic odontologist from a neighboring county who specializes in animal bites. [30] [31] [32] |
| July 4, 2015 | Tommie Woodward, 28, male | 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] |
| Date | Victim | Location — Circumstances |
|---|---|---|
| November 13, 2007 | Justo Padron, 36, male | Florida — A man fleeing police by jumping into a retention pond adjacent to the Miccosukee Resort and Convention Center near Miami was killed by a 9-foot 3-inch (2.8 m) alligator. [34] [35] [36] |
| October 5, 2007 | Gwen Williams, 83, female | 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] |
| July 15, 2005 | Kevin Albert Murray, 41, male | Florida — He was killed while swimming in the Apollo waterway in Port Charlotte by a 12' 2" (3.7 m) alligator. [44] [45] [46] |
| March 15, 2005 | Don Owen, 56, male | 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] |
| September 11, 2001 | Robert Steele, 81, male | Florida — He was attacked by an alligator while walking his dog on a trail between two wetland areas near the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel, Florida. Steele bled to death after his leg was bitten off below the knee. [44] [46] |
| June 23, 2001 | Alexandria Murphy, 2, female | Florida — She wandered away from her fenced back yard and was killed 700 feet from her home on Lake Cannon in Winter Haven. [44] [46] |
| May 4, 2001 | Samuel Wetmore, 70, male | 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] |
| Date | Victim | Location — Circumstances |
|---|---|---|
| March 21, 1997 | Adam Binford, 3, male | 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] |
| Date | Victim | Location — Circumstances |
|---|---|---|
| June 4, 1988 | Erin Glover, 4, female | Florida — She was killed while walking along the shore of Hidden Lake, Charlotte County. [44] [46] |
| July 13, 1987 | George Cummings III, 29, male | Florida — He was killed while snorkeling in the Wakulla Springs State Park, Wakulla County by an 11-foot (3.4 m) alligator. [44] [46] |
| May 4, 1985 | Paul Mirabito, 27, male | Florida — He was killed while diving and harassing small alligators in a canal near West Palm Beach. [49] |
| August 6, 1984 | Robert Crespo, 11, male | Florida — He was killed by a 12' 4" (3.8 m) alligator while swimming in a canal in St. Lucie County. [44] [46] |
| Date | Victim | Location — Circumstances |
|---|---|---|
| September 10, 1978 | Phillip Rastrelli, 14, male | Florida — He was killed while swimming across the Hidden River Canal off Bessie Creek in Martin County. [44] [46] |
| September 28, 1977 | George Leonard, 52, male | Florida — He was killed while swimming in the Peace River Canal, Charlotte County. [44] [46] |
| August 16, 1973 | Sharon Holmes, 16, female | Florida — She was killed while swimming at the Oscar Scherer State Park, Sarasota County, by an 11' 3" (3.4 m) alligator. [44] [46] |
| Date | Victim | Location — Circumstances |
|---|---|---|
| June 1957 | Allen Rice, 9, male | 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] |
| Date | Victim | Location — Circumstances |
|---|---|---|
| August 1899 | Delano Wood, male | 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] |
| August 10, 1734 | Jacques du Bois, male | Louisiana — The blacksmith at Fort St. Jean Baptiste, near what is now Natchitoches was found dead on the banks of the Cane River, and a coroner's inquest concluded he was killed by an alligator. [57] |
| 1685 | Dumesnil, male | Texas — A slave of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was killed while swimming across the Colorado River. [56] |
Other species:
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An alligator, or colloquially gator, is a large reptile in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae of the order Crocodilia. The two extant species are the American alligator and the Chinese alligator. Additionally, several extinct species of alligator are known from fossil remains. Alligators first appeared during the late Eocene epoch about 37 million years ago.
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The American alligator, sometimes referred to as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States and a small section of northeastern Mexico. It is one of the two extant species in the genus Alligator, and is larger than the only other living alligator species, the Chinese alligator.
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