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A dead Florida woman found in the jaws of a giant alligator had been arrested for trespassing onto nearby wetland, say court documents

Sep 24, 2023, 18:58 IST
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A Florida alligator.David Cannon/Getty Images
  • A dead body was found in the jaws of a huge alligator in Florida on Friday.
  • The body has been identified as Sabrina Peckham, 41, who was previously caught trespassing onto nearby wetland.
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Authorities have identified the person found dead in the jaws of a nearly 14-foot alligator's mouth on Friday.

Police said in a press update that the victim was 41-year-old Sabrina Peckham but that the manner and cause of her death have yet to be determined.

Her lifeless body was spotted in the mouth of the reptile in a canal by a witness who alerted authorities.

Peckham, who had been homeless, was caught by police in July for trespassing onto county wetland just blocks away from the location she was later found dead, per court documents, seen by Insider.

Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said that the alligator was "humanely killed" with the assistance of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

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The sheriff's office's dive team later recovered the woman's remains.

Authorities are yet to determine whether the animal played a role in her death.

In a similar incident in March, the body of a two-year-old boy was found in the mouth of an alligator, in a location close to where Peckham's corpse was retreived.

The father of Taylen Mosley was alleged to have put the toddler in the lake by his father after his mother, Pashun Jeffery, 20, was found dead in her St. Petersburg home with multiple stab wounds. Thomas Mosley, was charged in both deaths, according to a police affidavit, per CNN.

A St. Petersburg police statement said that the Pinellas Medical Examiner confirmed the child died of drowning.

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Fatal alligator attacks are very rare. The US generally reports an average of six annually, per AZ Animals.

There have been at least two known reports of fatal alligator attacks in Florida this year.

The state has a population of about 1.3 million alligators, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates.

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