ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fl. − Carol Thomas said she was in her bedroom that faces a lake when she heard something.
“I saw her and I saw the gator grab her, and I saw him take her under and I ran out and called 911,” Thomas said. “I asked her to swim toward the paddle boat (nearby) … and she said ‘I can’t. The gator has me’.”
Thomas spoke Tuesday, a day after an 85-year-old neighbor out with her dog died following an alligator encounter in the Spanish Lakes Fairways community in St. Lucie County, Florida.
Homes in the area sit close to a small lake, one of a number of water bodies in the community.
The deceased was identified as Gloria Serge, of Fort Pierce, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
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Thomas said she ran and got a shepherd hook to try to get out to the woman or hit the alligator.
“When I came back, she was no longer visible and never did surface again until a bit later when the cops were here,” Thomas said.
FWC officers and St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office deputies were sent to the scene for what they called an “alligator bite incident” following 911 calls.
Thomas said one of her windows was open and she heard something that caught her attention.
“I turned, and that’s when I saw her be grabbed and go down and that’s when I ran and got my phone and ran outside and I was calling 911 at the same time and trying to do something,” Thomas said. “It was just very disturbing that there was nothing I could do.”
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Why did the 10-foot alligator attack?
Tuesday, the FWC described what happened in a one-page report.
It said Serge was walking her small dog along the edge of the community retention pond behind her house when an approximate 10-foot alligator came out of the water after the dog.
She was knocked over and the alligator pulled her into the water by her foot. She was pulled into deeper water and died as a result of the incident. The alligator was caught and euthanized.
20-year resident was an ‘amazing’ neighbor known to many
Neighbor Judy Murray, 68, who’s lived in the community about a year, said Serge was “an amazing person.”
“She was the first one that knocked on my door and introduced herself,” Murray said.
Murray said she never saw her walk near the water.
“That was all very surprising to me,” Murray said. “I think she might have been going after the dog who got too close to the water. I don’t really know.”
Giovanna Puccio, 73, said the deceased was friendly and known to many. Puccio said she lived in the community more than 20 years and had several children.
Mounting concerns over alligators
Neighbor Charles Hermann, 80, said they are used to seeing alligators “but they’re usually not doing anything.”
“They just lay in the sun and so you wouldn’t expect it,” he said.
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Fatalities from alligators uncommon
An estimated 1.3 million alligators are in Florida and can be found in all 67 counties, according to FWC.
They can be found in practically all fresh and brackish water bodies and occasionally in salt water.
As of November 2021, FWC has documented 26 fatalities since it started documenting people’s encounters with the reptile in 1948.
The last documented fatality by FWC was April 22, 2019, when a man, 31, was killed while trying to evade police by swimming across a retention pond in Fort Myers in Lee County. The responsible alligator was male, 10-feet 3-inches in length.
Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on Twitter @OffTheBeatTweet.
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