As his family grieves, witnesses are recalling how an alligator made a surprise attack on two-year-old Lane Graves on June 14th.
Graves was wading in the Seven Seas Lagoon at Walt Disney World’s Grand Floridian Resort when an alligator emerged, snatched the little boy and dragged him underwater.
“We know that that happened and it is certainly not survivable at this point for him to have been submerged for that period of time,” Sheriff Jerry Demings said in a press conference before the body was found.
The Orlando Sentinel spoke to hotel guest Bill Wilson from Indiana, who saw the whole thing unfold from his balcony.
Wilson told the newspaper that at first, it sounded like a fight broke out on the beach.
“I looked over and here comes one of the lifeguards. He said, ‘Everybody get out of the water.’
“The mother was there and she was frantic, running up and down looking.”
The entire ordeal, Wilson recalled, happened in 30 seconds.
A minute later, the alligator was gone, with Grave his in mouth.
Wilson saw the group – which included a lifeguard and Grave’s parents, gathered by the water’s edge. That part of the beach was not lit, and it was very dark, he noted.
Almost immediately, Wilson said, first responders and Disney employees got to work searching for the little boy.
“Disney did every damn thing they could do to help,” he said.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings confirmed that divers found Graves’ body around 1:45 pm ET on June 15th in six feet of “murky” water, roughly 10-15 yards from where he was snatched.
Other than a few puncture wounds, the body was in tact.
Graves was visiting Disney World with his older sister and their parents, Matt and Melissa from Nebraska. They were enjoying their third day of vacation during the resort’s “Movie Night” on the beach.
“No Swimming” signs are posted on the beach, but there is no mention of being aware of alligators.