Wildlife officials in May confirmed that a captured 11-foot, 5-inch alligator was the reptile that killed a Tennessee woman as she snorkeled in a popular canoe run near Juniper Springs in the Ocala National Forest.
Witness statements, investigators’ findings and comparisons of the gator’s teeth with wounds on the victim led authorities to determine they had the right reptile, said Kat Kelley, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Trapper Curtis Lucas caught and killed the gator four days after Annmarie Campbell, 23, was attacked May 14.
The U.S. Forest Service immediately closed Juniper Run and Juniper Wayside, a swimming and fishing spot off State Road 19, until the killer gator could be captured.
They initially planned to have the areas closed during Memorial Day weekend because they thought it would take longer to confirm the trapper had killed the correct alligator, Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Rains said.
With the news, Forest Service officials reopened the areas as soon as the “closed” signs were removed and the staff was in place.
Lucas of Pierson began his hunt for the alligator hours after Campbell was attacked on Mother’s Day.
Friend James Earwood of Satellite Beach and Campbell’s former stepfather, Mark Barrett of Silver Springs, found her and pulled her from the gator’s mouth. They poked at the creature’s eyes and scratched its head to get it to free her.
She died from drowning and multiple blunt-force trauma. Campbell suffered lacerations to her head, neck and torso and had several broken ribs.
A forensic dentist with the Medical Examiner’s Office began to compare the alligator’s teeth with pictures taken of Campbell’s wounds.
Lucas was glad to hear confirmation on what he knew all along.
