A toddler was snatched by an alligator, dragged into a lake and mauled to death during a family trip to Disney World, The Mirror reported earlier this month.
Lane Graves was only two years old when his family took the trip in 2016. His family were unable to fight off the seven-foot gator as it snatched him and pulled him to the artificial lake, the Seven Seas Lagoon.
The boy’s body was later recovered by divers from the lake after a 16 hour search and the intervention of dozens of emergency personnel.
“There’s no question in my mind that the child was drowned by the alligator,” Orange County sheriff Jerry Demings said at a press conference. It was a tough message to deliver to them. The family was distraught but somewhat relieved we were able to retrieve their son with his body intact.”
Alligators in Disney World
The family had been on their third day of the trip at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort after travelling from Nebraska.
“He was about a foot in, maybe ankle-deep or a little higher,” Orange County sheriff’s office spokesperson Jeff Williamson told the Mirror. “There’s a sign there that says no swimming. There’s no indication he was doing that, but he was at the edge of the water and this freakish incident takes place in which a gator comes along and latches on to this poor child.
“He was about a foot in, maybe ankle-deep or a little higher,” Williamson said. “There’s a sign there that says no swimming. There’s no indication he was doing that, but he was at the edge of the water and this freakish incident takes place in which a gator comes along and latches on to this poor child.
“The father was very close by. He heard what sounded like a splash, he turned, he thought the splash was something innocent, but of course there was nothing innocent. He saw his child in the mouth of the gator. He ran to get the child out of the gator’s mouth and wrestled with the gator but was not successful. The gator was able to get the child away from the father and disappear into the water.
Immediately after the incident, Disney closed its beaches on all the resorts until the gator was captured. As authorities searched the water, wildlife officials found and euthanized five different alligators.
Despite alligators finding their way into the park for years, Graves is the first fatality from the beasts in the last 45 years.