The father of 2-year-old Lane Graves – who was dragged into the water and drowned by an alligator near Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida – has told officials a second gator was involved in the tragic attack.
The allegation forms part of newly-released emails between Captain Tom Wellons of the Reedy Creek Fire Department and his two supervisors, shortly after he interacted with Lane’s dad, Matt, the morning after he went taken.
The toddler was wading in knee-height water in the manmade Seven Seas Lagoon when the reptile snatched him at about 9:20pm local time; Matt rushed into the shallow water in a desperate attempt to wrestle him from the gator – believed to be between 1.2 and 2 metres long – but was unsuccessful.
Matt shared “the horror that he experience” with Wellons he was transported to hospital for stitches to lacerations from the gator’s teeth, and apparently told “how another gator attacked him as he fought for his son”, Wellons wrote in the email.
Orange County officials have been alerted that there may be a second alligator involved in the incident – entirely new information.
Five alligators were tragically euthanised during the 18-hour search for Lane, which ended when his in-tact body was discovered by divers.
Source: Orlando Sentinel.
Photo: Supplied.
