Police in Lakeland, Florida are currently investigating the death of a man found in the mouth of an eight-foot alligator Tuesday.
Sgt. Gary Gross, who responded to the scene at Lake Hunter, says he saw the animal with what appeared to be a human in its mouth.
“He rolled a few times in the water and then let go [of the body] and swam off,” Gross says, describing the gruesome Florida scene.
Members of the Lakeland P.D. then recovered the body of a white male that “appeared to have been in the water for more than a day.”
It is unknown if the victim died from an actual alligator attack or from other, unrelated causes prior to the discovery of the body.
“He could have been in the water for days but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been an alligator attack from three days ago,”
Gross explains also that for the animals, “it’s mating season down here and the alligators can store their food for some time.”
Detectives are currently combing the scene for identifying evidence, and a gator trapper has been dispatched to try to catch the animal.
“They’re on the scene right now,” Gross says.
“Trying to catch the alligator so that they can examine the contents of its stomach and see if there’s any human remains in it.”
Gross says there are no open missing persons cases in the area that match the victim’s description so the investigation is ongoing.
Because there is no open case, discovering the victim’s identity and cause and cause of death will now fall to the medical examiner.
