The body of a woman whose arm was found inside an alligator which is believed to have dragged her to her death was found late Friday evening by search and rescue teams in Florida.
Shizuka Matsuki, 47, was found dead by the Law Enforcement Division of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at around 10:00pm Friday at Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park in Davie.
The Commission said it would be conducting an investigation, though it offered no new details, according to CBS News.
Park rangers on Friday captured the enormous alligator in the large pond in the same park hours before discovery Matsuki’s body.
The 12ft-long alligator was captured by trappers on Friday afternoon. Rangers found a human arm inside it which belonged to Shizuka Matsuki, 47
Friends and family of Matsuki wait for word on her on Friday. Her body was found around 10:00pm
The alligator was filmed swimming in the water at Silver Lakes Rotary Park after reports that it dragged a woman into the water at 9:45am (above). In the afternoon, park rangers got the reptile out of the water and found a human arm inside it
When they cut it open, they discovered a human arm.
They were called to the scene at 9:45am amid reports that Matsuki had been dragged in to the water.
She was out walking her dogs, one of which was found by the side of the water with a large, fresh wound on its coat when authorities arrived.
Before divers could go into the water to look for her, they had to capture the beastly reptile which was filmed swimming ominously through the dark water not long after the alarm was raised.
Police were searching for Matsuki was seen being pulled into the water at Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park in Davie, Florida (the park is pictured above) at 9:45am
Video courtesy of Local 10
Locals say the reptiles are known to frequent the water and that they know not to let their dogs off the leash there because of it.
The alarm was raised at 9:45am when a man called 911 claiming to have seen the woman be taken into the water.
He told police that when he got to the water’s edge, Matsuki had vanished and her dogs were standing with their leashes on. One had a fresh wound, he said.
‘Her dogs won’t leave the pond. One of her dogs got bit by the gator,’ Davie Police Maj. Dale Engle told The Sun Sentinel as he searched for the woman afterwards.
A necropsy confirmed the gator bit Matsuki, 47, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials said in a statement.
Commission spokesman Rob Klepper said they were able to positively identify Matsuki from evidence collected from the necropsy of the alligator, but he wouldn’t specifically say what that evidence was.
Jim Borrelli, a friend of Matsuki, said she and her husband have walked their dogs in the park previously.
The couple did not live in the neighborhood, but he said she liked to find different places to walk the dogs.
Residents said they often saw her walking them in the area.
Borrelli said Matsuki’s husband, who is out of town and trying to fly home, sent him to the park to get more information after being contacted by Davie Police.
Borrelli said he was also asked to break the news to the couple’s son, who is in his 20s and lives in New York.
‘I’m praying that nothing happened to her,’ Borrelli said.
Police divers arrive at Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park on Friday after an arm is found inside an alligator’s mouth
Davie police are pictured on scene where woman is believed to have been dragged by an alligator
A man who identified himself as Matsuki’s brother and several other family friends gathered at the scene. He declined to talk but friends described the missing woman as a great friend who loved to cook.
Alligators are known to become more active in the spring and early summer as temperatures heat up.
The nature park is popular among dog walkers and has two large bodies of water.
One woman on social media claims to have seen a 7ft alligator swimming in the water earlier this week.
Another woman told Local 10 that her poodle vanished near the water at Christmas and that she suspected it had been eaten.
The lake at the nature park is sprawling and one of many. Earlier this week, another local reported seeing a ‘7ft alligator’ swimming in it
Local resident Amy Brehm told DailyMail.com that she was at the park on Wednesday night and saw the alligator in the water.
‘I was there with a friend, I go almost every day to watch the sun set.
‘While we were sitting in the gazebo an alligator swims by just off the shore. The alligator just did laps around the lake. The park ranger had just left not even five minutes before I saw it.
‘I waited around until nightfall for him to come back and tell him. I waited over an hour and he never showed so I left.
‘The park is a known park for animals to swim in. There is even a rope swing that people jump off to swim in,’ she said.