Man found dead in a pond may have been attacked by an ALLIGATOR

Man found dead in a pond may have been attacked by an ALLIGATOR, cops say after bite marks are found on his body

  • Police said the man’s body had wounds consistent with an ‘alligator encounter’
  • Alarm raised when he was reported missing from his home on Kiawah Island, SC 
  • Police dogs led searchers to the edge of a pond on the man’s property 

A man found dead in a pond behind his home may have been attacked by an alligator, police have said. 

A press release from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina said the man’s body had wounds consistent with an ‘alligator encounter’. 

The alarm was raised when he was reported missing from his home on Kiawah Island, a barrier island about 30 miles south of Charleston, on Saturday morning. 

Police responded to an afternoon call and were told the man hadn’t been seen since 10 am despite his car still being on his property. 

A press release from the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina said the man’s body had wounds consistent with an ‘alligator encounter’. A stock image is shown here

Police dogs led searchers to the edge of a pond on the man’s property and a helicopter search was then initiated. 

It was then the man’s body was found in the pond just out of site of his home. 

The discovery then became more grizzly when his body was pulled from the water. 

His wounds were ‘consistent in appearance with an alligator encounter,’ according to a press release from the authorities. 

They did not identify the man and, according to the police, it is unclear if the bite marks happened before or after the man died. 

The area is known to have alligators, Robert McCullough, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, told the Post and Courier.  

Reports suggest the man's home is on Kiawah Island Club Drive, an area surrounded by ponds

Reports suggest the man’s home is on Kiawah Island Club Drive, an area surrounded by ponds

The Charleston County Coroner will perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death in due course. 

Along the same coastline down on Hilton Head Island in August 2018 a woman was killed when a gator dragged her underwater. 

Cassandra Cline, a 45-year-old New York kindergarten teacher, was pounced on as she walked her dog near a lagoon.  

Other than Cline, the only other known gator-related death was that of Bonnie Walker, a 90-year-old woman with dementia, who wandered from an assisted-living facility and likely fell into a pond close by before being attacked.  

Charleston coroner’s office ruled the woman died as a result of gator wounds after the July 2016 attack. 

If it turns out that the unidentified man was indeed killed by an alligator, that would mark the 21st gator attack since 1976, according to SC DNR. 

 

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk