One older woman from South Carolina, aged 88 years old, who fell over into a pond while carrying out some gardening was killed by an almost 10-foot long alligator that then seemed to stand guard over its prey, as reported by local authorities.
The body of the woman in question, Nancy Becker, was finally recovered from the pong just slightly after mid-day this past Monday in a pond just inside Sun City Hilton Head, a gated adult community in the Palmetto State. this death marks the fourth of its kind for this year within the U.S. and the second of the four to happen in South Carolina.
“The alligator was basically holding her hostage, I guess — I don’t know what the appropriate term would be,” explained a Beaufort County sheriff’s spokeswoman, Maj. Angela Viens, as part of an interview, as reported by NBC News. “It was guarding her and did not want people close by.”
Police officials have stated that Becker had been trying to garden next to the pong when she slipped on the bank and slid into the water. She was then not able to scramble quickly enough to safety before the aquatic predator was able to strike.
Agents with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources were able to catch and subsequently kill the large 9-foot, 8-inch male gator by Monday evening, as reported by local authorities.
As a Del Webb adult community, Sun City Hilton Head sports a population of over 16,000 permanent residents. Viens stated that there are well over 200 scattered pongs and lagoons around the community area.
As reported by Horry County police, there has been one other resident of South Carolina who was killed by another alligator while playing at a private golf community on the 24th of June near Myrtle Beach.
The other pair of fatalities attributed to alligators this year took place in Florida. 47-year-old Sean McGuinness was killed on May 31 in Largo. Local authorities seem to think that he was looking for UFOs at the time. His body was found with three of its limbs missing.
The final one was Rose Wiegand who was killed last month when she tripped into a pond in Englewood at the Boca Royale Golf and Country Club.
Some victims in these instances manage to survive. As part of an interview carried out with WRAL, Samuel Ray spoke out about an intense brush with death that took place on the 22nd of June.
“It was about a foot away from the water,” explained Ray, who had been playing catch near a pong at the time. “And then as soon as I put my hand on the ball, I bent over and picked it up. That’s when I saw the gator’s eye.”
“It lunged out, and it was so fast, it was like a lightning strike,”
The gator bit down onto his hand, but Ray punched it with his free fist until it finally let go. This encounter resulted in a major loss of blood and severe nerce damage, but after a series of three surgeries, he was able to keep his hand.