Alligator Kills South Carolina Woman, 69, As She Walked Dog By Hilton Head Island Lagoon

The alligator was found guarding its victim’s mutilated body at the edge of a lagoon near her home and Spanish Wells Golf Club on Hilton Head Island. The South Carolina Woman is known to be age 69 but she’s yet to be identified and had allegedly walked her dog when the beast attacked on Tuesday morning. 

The alligator attack marked the second fatal attack in the same country in less than a year after a woman, 88, was killed in August 2022. 

‘Rescue efforts were made and an alligator appeared and was guarding the woman, interrupting emergency efforts,’ the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said. Now, the gator has been safely removed from the area and euthanized. Accordingly, the woman’s body has been recovered and an autopsy is planned for Wednesday.

It’s unclear where the woman was taken into the water and the condition of the woman’s dog is also unknown at this time. But then, Police along with Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue, Beaufort Country Coroner’s Office, and Spanish Wells security personnel had been called in at around 9:30 am for a report of a gator attack near a lagoon bordering the golf course. 

While Hilton Head Island is in an upscale neighborhood in Beaufort County and consistently ranked one of the best places to live in South Carolina, gator attacks have increased in recent years across the US, especially in Florida and South Carolina. The latter went years without attacks until 2022 when the state reported five alligator attacks in the year, two of which were fatal. 

As per Fish and Wildlife data, gator attacks in Florida increased from around six per year from 1971 through 1986 to nearly 10 per year from 1987 through 2017. ‘As the human population encroaches on the habitat of alligators, attacks and nuisance complaints increase,’ according to the NIH. In the last two decades, South Carolina’s human population increased by nearly 30 percent.

The population of Sun City Hilton Head, the living community where the fatal attack happened experienced an 88% growth from 1990 to 2010 and reportedly 24% growth ever since. In August 2022, Nanny Ann Jackson Becker, 88, died after she was attacked by an alligator outside her home in Sun City Hilton Head. She was the fourth person in the country to succumb to an alligator attack in less than 11 weeks, marking a four death in only 76 days. 

According to a lawsuit, the retirement community in South Caroline had been sued after Becker was killed in the alligator attack. The 88-Year-Old was found dead near the gator, which reportedly guarded her body, around 11 in the morning. 

In February this year, Gloria Serge aged 85 had also been mauled to death by a ten-foot gator as she tried to rescue her dog from the reptile’s clutches near a lake in Florida. 

A video shows the moment the gator busts from the water and lunges at the woman’s dog named Trooper. The attack transpired in front of a neighbor who then called 911 as she tried to help the woman. Serge’s dog eventually survived the attack and the gator was captured and euthanized. ‘The woman tried to get the dog away from the alligator’s jaws when the reptile attacked her, dragging her into the pond,’ an eyewitness told CBS News.

Just last week, 13-Year-Old Gabriel Klimis survived an attack from a gator where the reptile only let go of his right leg after the teen punched it in Florida. 

He was playing with friends at Howell Creek near Orlando when the gator hung onto his right leg as jumped off a bridge using a rope to attempt to cross the creek. 

A video was filmed by a tourist who was visiting the Shipyard on Hilton Head Island with his family and it showed the moment the fisherman ran from the beast. 

Micah Kimberlin claimed he was on a bike ride with his wife and children when he saw the gator. Surveillance video also showed the fisherman standing on the grassy side of the pond with the fishing rod in hand when suddenly the gator surfaces and lunges towards him. The man was seen running away from the lake in the opposite direction as a nearby woman holding a camera also hurriedly left the scene. The fisherman escaped without injury.  

• Professional Bodybuilder Sheryl Grant: The Secrets to a Strong Core at 61
• Grace Piscopo: Who is She And How Did She Become Famous?
• Who is Madi Edwards? Facts You Should Know About The Model
• ‘The Creator’: Release Date, Plot & Everything To Know
• The Origin of Evil: A Twisted Satire of Secrets And Betrayal