ORLANDO, Fla. _ For the second time in a week, a body has been found in a Florida waterway in the clutches of an alligator.
The St. Petersburg Police Department responded on Thursday morning after a body was found in the mangroves of Lake Maggiore, according to a press release.
Media reports said witnesses saw the body being dragged around and surrounded by multiple alligators.
"I seen the gator chomping on it," Otis Crawford told WFTS, an ABC affiliate serving Tampa Bay. WFTS said Crawford called police after seeing the body.
"I walked out onto the dock out there, took a video and kind've determined it's something." he told WFTS. "I'm glad I noticed before the gator got the body into the bushes and then nobody would have ever known."
The release said "there are signs of alligator involvement, although due to the condition of the body it's too soon to know the cause of death."
The body has been recovered and taken to the medical examiner.
Last week, a body was found in a canal in south Polk County being consumed by an alligator. In that case, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission trappers caught the alligator and performed a necropsy to find a hand and foot of the victim, Michael Ford II, 45, of Wauchula, in the alligator's stomach.
The autopsy on Ford revealed more lacerations and injuries caused by the alligator. It also revealed the apparent cause of death was drowning, the sheriff's office said. Final cause of death, though, await toxicology results.
