May 15, 2006
Amy C. Rippel and Stephen Hudak
Orlando Sentinel
Photo: The stomach of this 9 1/2-foot gator -- captured Saturday in the Sunrise canal where the body of Yovy Suarez Jimenez was found Wednesday -- contained 2 severed arms. (Mike Slaughter / Forum Publishing Group)
A woman snorkeling in a Marion County spring and a homeless woman trespassing in a Tampa Bay-area backyard were found dead Sunday in alligator attacks, bringing to three the number of fatal strikes in less than a week.
The bloody week in Florida's waterways marks a stark departure for a state that had seen just 17 confirmed deadly encounters with alligators in 58 years.
The homeless woman found dead and dismembered Sunday morning had been killed as many as three days earlier, officials said. A homeowner found the body near Oldsmar in Pinellas County.
The woman apparently was alone, her purse and some drugs found nearby, and she had suffered alligator bites. Officials say the attack was a factor in her death but won't know an official cause for as long as four weeks.
A Tennessee woman killed Sunday afternoon was swimming with friends in Juniper Run in Ocala National Forest. Two of the friends tried to pry her body from the jaws of the alligator, gouging its eyes in a frantic effort to free her.
That incident came just five days after a South Florida woman out for a jog went missing near a Broward County canal. Her dismembered body was found the next day, and the alligator that attacked her was captured and killed Saturday, parts of the jogger's body still in its digestive tract.
Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said there have been an increasing number of alligator attacks for several reasons, including warmer weather and humans encroaching on alligator territory.
"The bottom line is, yes, the trend is increasing," said commission spokeswoman Joy Hill.
About 7:30 a.m. Sunday, the body of Judy Cooper of Dunedin was found -- her right arm sheared off, officials said -- in a canal in East Lake
Woodlands, just north of Tampa Bay.
Cooper, 43, suffered "upper body trauma" from alligator bites, including severe wounds to both shoulders, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said.
Cooper's sister, Dannette Goodrich, 55, said the family had not heard from Cooper for about three months, since she slipped in her drug treatment and started abusing crack cocaine again.
Sheriff's investigators said Cooper had been in the water for about three days. The Medical Examiner's Office found no obvious trauma that would have been a result of a homicide but did find alligator bites.
The medical examiner said the alligator "did play some part in the victim's death." The official cause of death will not be available for several weeks while blood tests are conducted.
Gary Goodrich, Cooper's brother-in-law, said officials told them her purse was found near the water.
"They don't know how she died. They know there was drugs involved. They found drugs at the scene," Goodrich said. "I guess she had rolled in the water. The alligator got her and took . . . [one of] her arms and part of her back."
Kelly Ferderber, 45, first saw the body Friday but thought it was garbage floating in the canal behind her home in East Lake Woodlands.
Sunday morning, her daughter, Ashley, 18, and son, Evan, 16, went to check out the floating mass. They used a boat pole to pull it closer. Then they saw a brown ponytail, a white ear, blue jeans with the pockets sticking out and a dark sneaker.
"I found out it was real, and I freaked out," Ashley Ferderber said.
Fish and Wildlife spokesman Gary Morse said a trap containing a dead chicken has been set in the canal, but they might not catch the gator responsible for the attack because it might have moved on to a different area.
Dannette Goodrich said Cooper had two children, an 11-year-old daughter and a 23-year-old son.
HOW MANY: Today there are more than 1.5 million alligators in the wild in Florida alone.
SIZE: Males can be up to 15 feet long and weigh 400 pounds; females can be 8 feet long and weigh 160 pounds.
RANGE: Southern United States and Central America.
HABITAT: Swamps, rivers and lakes.
DIET: Fish, small mammals and birds. Young eat insects, worms and small fish.
LIFE SPAN: Little is known about longevity in the wild; there are records of 73 to 100 years in captivity.
STATUS: Formerly endangered, now threatened because of the protection given to them. Limited, licensed hunting is allowed in a few areas.
SENSES: Good binocular vision.
LOCOMOTION: Will slide on belly, walk or gallop for short distances when on the land. An excellent swimmer, uses its hind feet as rudders.
HABITS: Females are territorial and will guard and defend their nests. An adult will eat 20 pounds per week in hot weather, but no food during the winter. Males roar during the mating season, but the normal vocalization is a hiss.
REPRODUCTION: Mating occurs in open water. The female then goes to the thickest part of the marsh to build a large nest of muddy vegetation. A week later, she lays 30 to 70 eggs, which hatch 2 months later.
SOURCE: Sentinel researchhttp://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-mgatorattacks1506may15,0,6474549.story?coll=orl-home-promo