2 Gators Captured; Neither Killed Woman
Jogger's Mauled Body Found In Canal Wednesday
POSTED: 11:42 am EDT May 12, 2006
UPDATED: 2:22 pm EDT May 12, 2006
SUNRISE, Fla. -- Authorities said they still have not caught the alligator that killed a Davie, Fla., woman earlier this week.
A 9-foot alligator was captured Friday morning by trappers who had left pig lungs out as bait overnight, but a necropsy of the animal revealed only a raccoon in its stomach.
Another alligator was also caught Thursday night, but the contents of its stomach revealed only tennis balls and a football. Both gators were killed.
The dismembered body of Yovy Jimenez was found Wednesday by construction workers in a canal parallel to State Road 84. The 28-year-old Florida Atlantic University student went for a jog Tuesday night and didn't return.
Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said an autopsy of the body showed that an alligator attacked Jimenez.
"I'm not going to get into detail as to the condition of the body," Pino said. "Needless to say, it was not something that anybody would want to see."
Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County's medical examiner, concluded Thursday that, "The alligator attacked the woman while she was on land," and then dragged her body into the canal. He said she "died of traumatic injuries sustained by an alligator attack, a mixture of blood loss and shock," and ruled out drowning because little water was found in her stomach and lungs.
"We may never know what the truth is or what exactly occurred," Pino said.
Wildlife officials said there have been 25 fatal alligator attacks in Florida since 1948.
