A morning dog walk turned fatal for a South Carolina woman who was attacked and killed by an alligator. Emergency services recovered her body and killed the 8-foot predator.
Cassandra Cline, 45, was walking her dog by a lagoon in Sea Pines Plantation, South Carolina on Monday morning, when an alligator attacked. Witnesses say Cline was pulled underwater by the 8-foot beast within minutes, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office reported. Her dog was unharmed.
Fire services responded and recovered Cline’s body, which was later identified by her next of kin. Sheriff’s deputies searched the swampy lagoon for the killer alligator, and “dispatched it at the scene.”
The American alligator is common throughout much of the US’ southern states, with a habitat that stretches from east Texas, through all of Florida, and right up to North Carolina, where they thrive in wetland and tidal marsh environments.
Despite their powerful jaws and pointed teeth, fatal alligator attacks on humans are quite rare, and there have been only seven attacks causing death in the US since 2010. Earlier this summer, Shizuka Matsuki was dragged to death and her body dismembered when she was attacked by an alligator in Davie, Florida.
Like Cline, Matsuki had been walking her dogs near a lake at the time.
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