The body of a Florida woman who went missing on Friday morning while walking her dogs has been found.
A 12-foot alligator is believed to be responsible for her death, as her arm was found in its mouth.
via People:
On Saturday, the law enforcement division of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced that search teams had recovered the body of Shizuka Matsuki from the Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park lake in Davie — not far from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
“We would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Shizuka Matsuki,” the organization tweeted. “We will be conducting a thorough investigation into this incident.”
Matsuki, 47, had last been seen at the lake near the Ft. Lauderdale lake walking her two dogs, a witness told Davie Police Detective Viviana Gallinal, CBS News reported. A short time later, she was gone, though her dogs were found still on leashes and barking towards the water.
Trappers pulled an alligator from the lake hours later, NBC News reported. FWC officials then cut the reptile open and found a human arm inside, believed to be Matsuki’s.
“After an initial necropsy, evidence was found that indicates that the victim of this incident was bitten by the alligator that was captured earlier today,” FWC spokesman Robert Klepper said, according to WSVN.
One of Matsuki’s dogs also “got bit by the gator,” Davie Police Major Dale Engle told the Sun Sentinel.
Her husband was out of town at the time of the attack, the paper reported.
A neighbor told the Miami Herald that he had warned his wife not to walk near the nature park. “He had warned her not to take the dogs over to that place because they had seen gators before and it isn’t safe,” neighbor Peter Limia, 37, said. “She was just your ordinary soccer mom. It’s a tragedy.”
The dogs, which are pit bulls, are currently with Broward County Animal Care, reported the Herald.
So sad.
