Sheriff: Body of toddler found after Florida alligator attack
ORLANDO — Authorities recovered the body of a 2-year-old boy dragged into the water by an alligator near a Disney resort, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said Wednesday.
Members of the sheriff's office dive team located the remains of the toddler, identified as Lane Graves, around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, nearly 17 hours after the reptile snatched the boy, Demings said. The body was discovered intact, he added.
Demings identified the parents as Matt and Melissa Graves of Elkhorn, Neb. The family was vacationing at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa in Orlando when the attack occurred in a man-made lake.
"It was a tough message to deliver to them," the sheriff said. He added the parents asked him to thank all the members of the public who prayed for the safe discovery of their little boy.
Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger expressed his condolences in a statement released on Wednesday.
"As a parent and a grandparent, my heart goes out to the Graves family during this time of devastating loss," Iger said. "My thoughts and prayers are with them, and I know everyone at Disney joins me in offering our deepest sympathies."
The 7- to 8-foot reptile grabbed the boy late Tuesday as he was playing in about a foot of water at the Seven Seas Lagoon at the resort. His father, who quickly rushed to the boy's aid, could not fend off the alligator and received minor injuries to his hand.
The boy's mother also rushed into the water, but when the frantic couple were unable to save their son, they alerted a nearby lifeguard who called 911.
Earlier Wednesday, Demings said the horrific ordeal was "not survivable." About 50 wildlife specialists, including trained alligator trappers, shifted from a search and rescue effort to a recovery operation, Demings said.
How often do alligator attacks happen in Florida?
"There were eyewitnesses who certainly saw the child taken under the water," he said. "We know that that happened and it is certainly not survivable at this point for him to have been submerged for that period of time."
There are posted signs warning guests against swimming in the lake, Demings said.
Nick Wiley, executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which spearheaded the search, said the American alligator was feeding and likely confused the small child for a dog or a raccoon. The gators do not typically feed on humans.
“People – even small people – are not their typical prey,” he said.
Disney said it closed all beaches in its resort area “out of an abundance of caution,” CNN reported.
Officials said they removed five alligators from the lake. The reptiles will be euthanized to determine if they were involved in the incident.
Wildlife officials count around a dozen alligator bites a year in Florida, but fatalities from the reptiles are far less common. There have been only 23 fatalities caused by alligators in Florida since the 1940s, Wiley said. Tuesday's incident is the first known alligator attack at the Seven Seas Lagoon, he said.
“They were probably attracted to some motion on the bank,” Wiley said. “That’s the way they stalk their prey.”
The mother, father and their three children checked into the hotel Sunday, Demings said.
"Everyone here at the Walt Disney World resort is devastated by this tragic accident," Disney spokeswoman Jacquee Wahler said. "We are helping the family and doing everything we can to assist law enforcement."
The terrifying alligator attack at one of the world's favorite family vacation destinations comes as the Orlando area reels from the mass shooting at a nightclub that claimed 49 lives early Sunday and the fatal shooting of singer Christina Grimmie at a concert late Friday.
Contributing: William Cummings