Current:Home > Contact-usHuman remains found in jaws of alligator in Houston after woman reported missing-InfoLens
Human remains found in jaws of alligator in Houston after woman reported missing
View Date:2024-12-23 11:01:56
Authorities in Texas are investigating after human remains were found in the jaws of an alligator while officers were searching the area for a missing woman. The gruesome discovery in Houston comes less than a year after the body of a woman was found in the mouth of a gator in Florida.
"Patrol officers located the remains of a woman in the jaws of an alligator in the Horsepen Bayou … while searching the area for a woman reported missing," Houston police said in a statement Wednesday.
A sergeant shot and killed the alligator "to prevent it from doing more damage to the remains," officials said. A dive team later recovered the woman's body and dead alligator from the bayou, police said.
Police said the husband of the victim, an unnamed woman in her 60s, reported her missing early Tuesday morning, CBS affiliate KHOU-TV reported. He told police she went for a walk around 7:30 p.m. Monday and never returned.
Police are waiting for autopsy results to determine the woman's cause of death.
"(Alligators) live down there. We see 8 feet, 10 feet babies. I know which banks to stay away from and where they like to lay in the sun," local Angela Derous told KTRK-TV. "That's the first time I've heard of that happening down here. It's a little scary."
The woman's death comes about eight months after the body of a 41-year-old woman was spotted in the jaws of a 13-foot alligator in Largo, Florida. Last Febraury, an 85-year-old woman was killed by a 10-foot alligator walking her dog in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Alligator attacks are rare in Texas, although earlier this month, a police officer in Cleveland, Texas was bitten by a 10-foot gator while trying to remove it from a roadway.
The last fatal alligator attack in the state happened in 2015, when a 28-year-old man was killed while swimming late at night at a marine in Southeast Texas.
- In:
- Texas
- Alligator
Stephen Smith is a managing editor for CBSNews.com based in New York. A Washington, D.C. native, Steve was previously an editorial producer for the Washington Post, and has also worked in Los Angeles, Boston and Tokyo.
veryGood! (837)
Related
- John Krasinski Reveals Wife Emily Blunt's Hilarious Response to His Sexiest Man Alive Title
- RHOC's Shannon Beador Charged With DUI and Hit-and-Run One Month After Arrest
- Travis Kelce Dances to Taylor Swift's Shake It Off at the World Series
- Taylor Swift's '1989 (Taylor's Version)' sets Spotify music streaming records for 2023
- Mother of Man Found Dead in Tanning Bed at Planet Fitness Gym Details His Final Moments
- Heidi Klum's Jaw-Dropping Costumes Prove She's the Queen of Halloween
- Police were alerted just last month about Maine shooter’s threats. ‘We couldn’t locate him.’
- Winners and losers of college football's Week 9: Kansas rises up to knock down Oklahoma
- Rōki Sasaki is coming to MLB: Dodgers the favorite to sign Japanese ace for cheap?
- Former Vice President Mike Pence ends campaign for the White House after struggling to gain traction
Ranking
- Dallas Long, who won 2 Olympic medals while dominating the shot put in the 1960s, has died at 84
- Thousands of Ukrainians run to commemorate those killed in the war
- North Macedonia police intercept a group of 77 migrants and arrest 7 suspected traffickers
- Colombian police continue search for father of Liverpool striker Díaz
- Minnesota man is free after 16 years in prison for murder that prosecutors say he didn’t commit
- In Benin, Voodoo’s birthplace, believers bemoan steady shrinkage of forests they revere as sacred
- Severe drought in the Amazon reveals millennia-old carvings
- King Charles III seeks to look ahead in a visit to Kenya. But he’ll have history to contend with
Recommendation
-
AI could help scale humanitarian responses. But it could also have big downsides
-
Live updates | Palestinian officials say death toll rises from expanded Israel military operation
-
China’s foreign minister says Xi-Biden meeting in San Francisco would not be ‘smooth-sailing’
-
West Virginia's Akok Akok 'stable' at hospital after 'medical emergency' in exhibition game
-
Todd Golden to continue as Florida basketball coach despite sexual harassment probe
-
Police were alerted just last month about Maine shooter’s threats. ‘We couldn’t locate him.’
-
Diamondbacks can't walk fine line, blow World Series Game 1: 'Don't let those guys beat you'
-
LA Police Department says YouTube account suspended after posting footage of violent attack