Orlando-area officials confirmed Wednesday afternoon that a body has been recovered in a lake at the Grand Floridian Resort at Disney World.
It would be the 24th fatal alligator attack in Florida during the past 43 years, according to a report in the News Press.
Wednesday's discovery ended an exhaustive 17-hour search that began after 2-year-old Lane Graves, whose family was visiting from Nebraska, was dragged into the water Tuesday night by an alligator. The 7- to 8-foot reptile grabbed the boy as he was playing in about a foot of water at the Seven Seas Lagoon at Grand Floridian.
The toddler's death would be Florida's 24th caused by an alligator attack since 1973, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the fourth involving a child under age 5. According to FWC, there were 383 unprovoked alligator attacks between 1948 and 2015, categorized as follows:
Fatal attacks: 23
Minor attacks: 126
Major attacks: 257
There have been fatal alligator attacks in 15 of Florida's 67 counties. With three fatalities each, Lee and Charlotte counties on Florida's southwest coast have the most deaths caused by alligators.
FWC began tracking alligator attacks in 1948, and provides these snapshots of Florida's unprovoked fatal alligator attacks through April 2016:
1. Sharon Holmes, 16, female, was killed by an 11'3" male alligator while swimming at dusk in a lake at Oscar Scherer State Park, Sarasota County, on Aug. 16, 1973. The alligator was killed, and body parts from the victim were found in its stomach. The alligator had recently moved into the lake and was reportedly to have been fed by visitors to the park.
2. George Leonard, 52, male, was seized on the arm by an alligator while swimming in the Peace River Canal, Charlotte County, on Sept. 28, 1977 at 8:35 p.m. A 7 ft. alligator, which had appeared in the canal the day of the bite, severed the victim's arm at the elbow. Leonard died three days later of complications from the bite.
3. Phillip Rastrelli, 14, male, was killed while swimming across the Hidden River Canal off Bessie Creek in Martin County on Sept. 10, 1978 at noon. The alligator was an 11-foot healthy male.
4. Robert Crespo, 11, male, was killed while swimming in a canal in St. Lucie County on Aug. 6, 1984 at 4:30 p.m. The alligator was 12' 4", aged and in poor health.
5. Paul Mirabito, 27, male, disappeared while diving and harassing small alligators in the Wellington C27 canal near West Palm Beach on May 4, 1985. His body was recovered 2 days later with severe injuries to the neck and puncture wounds on the arm. The medical examiner concluded that the cause of death was drowning, but noted evidence of bleeding around the wounds, indicating the bites occurred prior to drowning.
6. George Cummings III, 29, male, was killed while snorkeling in the Wakulla River on July 13, 1987 at 2 p.m. The alligator was an 11-foot healthy male.
7. Erin Glover, 4, female, was seized and killed by an alligator while walking along the shore of Hidden Lake, Charlotte County on June 4, 1988 at 6:10 p.m. The alligator was a 10' 7" male.
8. Bradley Weidenhamer, 10, male, was killed while wading in the Loxahatchee River at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County on June 19, 1993. The alligator was an 11' 4" male.
9. Grace Eberhart, 70, female, was killed at Lake Serenity in Sumter County on Oct. 3, 1993. The circumstances surrounding her death are unknown, but she died of a broken neck caused by an alligator bite to the throat and head. Several alligators may have been involved in the incident. The largest measured 9' '7" long.
10. Adam Binford, 3, male, was killed at Lake Ashby in Volusia County on March 21, 1997. The child strayed outside the roped-off swimming area in a county park to pick some lily pads when an 11-foot alligator attacked him. Splashing dogs in the area may have attracted the alligator. His body was recovered the next day about a mile from the site of the incident.
11. Samuel Wetmore, 70, male, was killed in a pond near his residence in Venice in Sarasota County. He was found on May 4, 2001, and the county medical examiner determined that he died from multiple trauma and loss of blood. An 8' 4" alligator was removed and destroyed.
12. Alexandria Murphy, 2, female, was killed at Lake Cannon in Polk County on June 23, 2001. She wandered 700 feet from her fenced backyard where she had been playing when last seen by her mother. A 6' 6" alligator was removed and destroyed.
13. Robert Steele, 82, was killed near his house on Rabbit Road in Sanibel on Sept. 11, 2001. Steele was walking his terrier on a narrow path that ran between two wetland areas close to J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge when a 10' 9" gator seized him and dragged him into the water, severing his leg. FWC officers destroyed the alligator. Another six-foot alligator was also removed.
14. Brian Griffin, 12, male, was killed while swimming near a boat ramp in the Dead River in Lake County on June 18, 2003. The male alligator that attacked and drowned Griffin was 10’ 4” long and weighed 339 lbs. That alligator and several other large alligators were captured destroyed.
15. Janie Melsek, 54, female, was seized by an alligator while landscaping near a pond along Poinciana Circle, Sanibel on July 21, 2004. Melsek survived the attack, but died later of an infection related to the wounds. The alligator that attacked Melsek was a 12’ 3” male, which was removed and destroyed.
16. Michelle Reeves, 20, female, was killed while swimming after midnight in a retention pond at the Lee Memorial Health Park in Lee County on Sept. 26, 2004. Reeves was visiting the area during a college break. The 7' 11" male alligator that attacked her was removed and destroyed.
17. Donald Ray Owen, 56, was found dead in Six Pound Pond near Lakeland in Polk County with multiple alligator bites and the left arm amputated below the elbow. The medical examiner determined that the victim was bitten prior to dying on March 11, 2005. Circumstances of the incident are uncertain because there were no witnesses. The 9' 8" male alligator responsible for the attack was caught and destroyed.
18. Kevin Murray, 41, male, was killed while swimming in a canal in Port Charlotte on July 15, 2005. The 12' 2" male alligator that attacked him was removed and destroyed.
19. Yovoy Suarez-Jimenez, 28, female, was killed by an alligator at the North New River Canal in Sunrise on May 10, 2006. Circumstances of the attack are uncertain because no witnesses were present. The 9' 6" male alligator that attacked her was caught and destroyed.
20. Judy Cooper, 42, female, was killed by an alligator in a canal in the East Lake Woodlands subdivision in Oldsmar on May 13, 2006. Circumstances of the attack are uncertain because of no witnesses. The 8' 5" female alligator responsible for the attack was caught and destroyed.
21. Annmarie Campbell, 23, female, was seized and drowned by an alligator in Juniper Run in the Ocala National Forest on May 14, 2006 while snorkeling. Campbell had separated from others in her party, and was alone when the attack occurred. Companions found her in the jaws of the alligator less than 30 minutes after the attack and forced the alligator to release her by assaulting its head. The 11' 5" male alligator was captured four days later and destroyed.
22. Justo Antonio Padron, 36, male was seized and drowned by an alligator as he was swimming across a pond at the Miccosukee Indian reservation in west Miami on November 8, 2007. Eyewitnesses watched as Padron disappeared under water, while trying to elude police. His body was later recovered at the bottom of the pond by divers. A 9’4” alligator and a 7’6” alligator were removed from the pond, the larger of which was believed to be responsible for the attack.
23. James Okkerse, 61, male, was killed while snorkeling in Blue Spring Run in Orange City on Oct. 19, 2015. The 12’ ½” male alligator responsible for the attack was captured and destroyed.
