Medical examiner confirms woman jogger was killed by alligator in Sunrise
By John Holland & Akilah Johnson
sun-sentinel.com
Posted May 11 2006, 3:00 PM EDT
SUNRISE -- A Davie woman found floating in a canal near Markham Park was stalked and killed by an alligator, then dragged into the water, an autopsy confirmed on Thursday.
Yovy Suarez Jimenez, 28, was apparently attacked on land and dragged into the canal near State Road 84. She received several traumatic injuries and lost two limbs in the attack, law enforcement agents and the Broward County Medical Examiner's Office said on Thursday.
The dismembered body was found near a bridge off S.R. 84 on Wednesday by construction workers. She was wearing jogging shoes and clothing. Officials said she went for a jog Tuesday evening and never returned home.
``It is my professional opinion that the alligator attacked the woman while she was on land,'' said Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County's medical examiner. ``She died of traumatic injuries sustained by an alligator attack, a mixture of blood loss and shock, and in my opinion died very fast.''
Perper ruled out drowning because little water was found in her stomach and lungs
It marks the first fatal alligator attack ever recorded in Broward County. The attack also shows that the recent drought, coupled with the gator mating season and more construction in West Broward, has made human contact with alligators more common, experts said.
Earlier, Officer Jorge Pino, spokesman for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the department had witnesses who had seen a woman matching Jimenez's description dangling her feet over the water's edge, but no one saw an attack, Pino said.
"You really have two different scenarios coming together, said Kevin Garvey, whose company, Nuisance Wildlife Control, was hired to track down the killer alligator."The low water conditions mean that they are going to be traveling a little more, and you always have more activity when they are mating. I get callled out at least every day during this time of year.''
Garvey set up a trap and fishing line baited with pig's lung in hopes of luring the suspect gator, but he said his best shot will come at night as he patrols the canal by boat. The alligator is believed to be 8 to 10 feet long.
If captured, Pino said the contents of the gator's stomach will be examined.
Perper said the alligator appeared to have crawled on to land and killed Jimenez and then dragged her body into the water.
He said alligators generally pull their prey into the water.
``When they are hungry they can be very very aggressive and attack for food purposes,'' Perper said.
Being killed by an alligator is extremely rare. There have only been 25 fatal alligator attacks in Florida since 1948 and none in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, according to the Wildlife Commission.
The most recent incident occurred in Port Charlotte when a 12-foot alligator attacked a 41-year-old man as he swam in a canal in July. Nearly a year before that, a 20-year-old woman was killed in Lee County while swimming in a retention pond. In 2004, a woman was attacked while on Sanibel Island.
In 1993, an alligator grabbed the head of Bradley Weidenhamer, 10, of Lantana, and dragged him into the Loxahatchee River. Bradley died despite efforts by his father and others to free him from the alligator's jaws in a remote site along the river in Martin County.
Experts say alligator attacks haven't become more common but man's interaction with the reptile has. As more land is developed to keep pace with Florida's housing boom, more wildlife habits are lost and alligators are more likely to wander into residential and commercial areas.
The lack of rain is also bringing more alligators out of the wild.
"The Everglades is very, very dry, so that means a lot of gators that were in the marshes are now in canals," said Frank Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife scientist. "So probably everywhere you go in the western part of Broward County, there are more alligators in canals than there were a month ago.
The Associated Press contributed to this report as did Staff Writers John Holland and Joe Kollin and Staff Researchers Barbara Hijek and William Lucey.
