After the latest incident involving an alligator attack left an elderly woman dead in St. Lucie County, WPTV takes a look back at other recent fatal attacks.
Oct. 19, 2015: James Okkerse, 62, is killed by a 12-foot alligator while snorkeling at Blue Spring State Park in Volusia County. Hours after Okkerse vanishes under the water, divers with the Volusia County Sheriff's Office locate his body and snorkeling equipment. The body has injuries consistent with a gator attack. The gator is later captured near where Okkerse's body is found. It is shot and killed.
Nov. 13, 2015: Matthew Riggins, 22, is partially eaten by an alligator in a lake inside the Barefoot Bay community in Brevard County. Divers with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office discover the body 10 days after authorities received calls about two suspicious men walking behind homes in the neighborhood. Riggins had told his girlfriend that he would be burglarizing homes there, but he apparently hid in the lake to avoid being caught. Riggins is reported the next day. Days later, divers find the body and also encounter an 11-foot gator that is caught and killed. Human remains inside the gator are consistent with injuries found on the body.
June 5, 2016: An alligator is seen with a body in its mouth in Lake Hunter in Lakeland. The gator releases the body and swims away. Police recover the body, later identified as Richard Taylor, 72. The 9-foot gator is captured and killed. Human remains are found in its stomach.
June 14, 2016: Lane Graves, a 2-year-old Nebraska boy who was vacationing with his family at Walt Disney World, is dragged into the Seven Seas Lagoon by an alligator while making sandcastles along the water's edge near the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. His body is found the next day. Six gators are eventually removed from the lake, including the one that killed the boy. The killer gator is euthanized.
June 8, 2018: Shizuka Matsuki, 47, of Plantation, is walking her dogs at Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park in Davie when she is bitten by a 12-foot, 6-inch alligator and dragged into a nearby lake. A witness spots two of her dogs wandering near the parking lot and the other by the lake. He also tells the 911 dispatcher he notices a "big alligator hanging out" in the water. The gator is later caught and killed. Matsuki's arm is found inside.
May 30, 2022: Sean McGuinness, 47, is killed by an alligator while searching for Frisbees in Taylor Lake at John S. Taylor Park in Largo. A dog walker finds the man's body on the shoreline the next morning. A gator is removed from the water that evening and killed.
July 15, 2022: Rose Marie Wiegand, 80, falls into a pond while picking weeds near her home at the Boca Royale Golf & Country Club in Englewood and is pulled under the water by two alligators. Her body is found later in the day. A medical examiner later ruled the alligator attack as the cause of her death. Both gators are eventually removed from the pond.
