Texas Alligator Attack: Remains of Missing Woman Found Inside Jaws of Gator in the Greater Houston Area

A Texas alligator was found with human remains inside its jaws earlier this week, shocking a local community where deadly alligator attacks are very rare.

The victim was a missing woman in her 60s and was spotted dead at a lake in the Greater Houston Area on Tuesday, May 28. According to local authorities, an investigation is still pending regarding the exact cause of death of the Texas woman.

Texas Alligator Attack

In a recent news release regarding the Texas alligator attack, the City of Houston announced that the local police are awaiting the autopsy results surrounding the death of the Texas woman who was found in the alligator's jaw. The site of the gruesome sighting is located at 2700 block of Coastal Oak Drive at 8:40 a.m. on Tuesday. The victim is believed to be in her 60s and a resident in the area.

Based on a report by the Houston Police Department, its patrol officers found the remains of the woman (who was reported missing) in the mouth of the alligator while searching for her in the Horsepen Bayou, west of El Dorado Boulevard. Since it is unclear whether the woman was already dead or not before encountering the alligator, investigations are still pending at the moment.

The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences has conducted the autopsy. Following the incident, a police sergeant shot and killed the alligator to prevent it from causing potentially further harm, according to the media release. City officials did not mention of any foul play in relation to the incident. The remains were recovered by the police department's dive team.

Related Attacks in the US

Wildlife experts say that alligator-human attacks are rare in Texas, with the last fatal encounter taking place back in 2015, when a man in his 20s was killed by an alligator. The incident almost a decade ago is the first in Texas in two centuries, according to local reports. In 2023, Florida also had a similar incident after a 41-year-old dead body of woman was found inside the jaws of a 13-foot alligator.

Although deadly alligator attacks are rare, they do still occur, experts warn. In other parts of the United States, human fatalities and injuries due to gator attacks have been reported in recent years. In 2022, a Florida man searching for frisbees in alligator territory was killed by one of the reptiles. Authorities at that time found the victim's mutilated body at the edge of a Florida lake.

The crocodilians are endemic in the US are called American alligators which can grow up to more than 12 feet (3.6 meters), according to the National Wildlife Federation. The said species Alligator mississippiensis can be found from North Carolina to the Rio Grande in Texas. They are often seen in freshwater bodies and slow-moving rivers.