Woman Dies After Alligator Bites Off Her Arm

[matcom]

<snip>

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- A Georgia woman died after an alligator bit off part of her right arm while she apparently went swimming in a lake.

The body of Michelle Reeves, 20, of Roswell, was found floating face down in a lake Sunday near the Cypress Cove development, Lee County Sheriff's spokeswoman Ileana LiMarzi said.

The college student's right arm was bitten off at the elbow, and she also had puncture wounds on her left arm and upper body, LiMarzi said.

Reeves was in Fort Myers with her father visiting her grandparents. She "had made several remarks to her family during the day that she wanted to go swimming in that lake, LiMarzi said.

LiMarzi said Monday that Reeves apparently went skinny-dipping sometime after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, when family members saw her going to bed.

Her father couldn't find her about 10 a.m. Sunday. While searching for her, he found his daughter's nightgown near the lake. He found her body at 11:30 a.m. after calling sheriff's deputies.

http://www.wftv.com/newsofthestrange/3763281/detail.html

[bleedingheart]

1. that is just plain sad

however aren't alligators common in lakes down there?

Glad I live in frigid Pennsylvania where the cold temps keep those kind of critters away..

[Endangered Specie]

2. ...And you thought your weekend sucked.

[underpants]

3. This was no boating accident

20 huh? guess she hadn't seen Jaws and learned the lessons of 70's promiscuity and free living as illustrated by skinny dipping in the middle of the night.

That is sad though.

Did the alligator beat her with it?

[Dudley_DUright]

4. Some idiot teenagers were playing with a 6 ' gator that

came from lake Monroe and was on the flooded frontage road in Sanford FL. They showed footage on the local news of them grabbing it by the tail. Clearly candidates for the Darwin award.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. How much must it suck to be that Dad?

I don't think I could go on.

[GCP]

6. In Florida I always assume there are gators in any body of water

I expect she bled to death, poor thing.

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. I was guessing that she ultimately drowned

Just losing her lower arm shouldn't have been enough for her to bleed to death. So sad. Too bad she didn't have someone with her.

[NEOBuckeye]

8. She probably never had a chance.

Alligators are stealth predators who are VERY at home in water, so she was at an obvious disadvantage. I don't know how big of a person she was, but even a stocky, well-built & athletic individual would take a grievous beating from a gator in its natural habitat. And that's if he or she saw it coming. This was a 20 year-old girl, probably of average height and weight, and of modest strength. Even if she had remained conscious during much of the attack, judging by the description of her body's wounds, she was probably completely helpless once the gator had crushed her in its jaws.

Poor girl. It's very hard to imagine anyone wanting to end their life as meat for a gator. It's even more difficult to imagine the horror and heartache her father must've felt in the moment that he found her body.

[yardwork]

10. I think that alligators drag their victims underwater and drown them

I'm sure it didn't really want to eat her. It grabbed what it thought was prey and when it realized it had a human it probably let go but by that time she was drowned.

This is very sad.

[jdj]

11. I'm sure it death-rolled her, that's what they do...

it may have grabbed her by the arm and death-rolled her. It may have eaten the arm, and was guarding the body for later meals, in fact, the gator was probably in the lake when they recovered the body.

I remember in Orlando being surprised at all the signs by canals saying don't feed the gators, I thought they were a joke at first.

[Chovexani]

9. Where do you find this stuff matcom?

Poor woman.