Houston police kill alligator found eating human remains

May 29 (UPI) — Officers searching for a missing woman found an alligator chewing on her remains Tuesday, according to Houston police.

A police sergeant shot and killed the alligator and it and the woman’s remains were found in Horsepen Bayou, near the 2700 block of Coastal Oak Drive.

It is not yet known whether the victim died as a result of the alligator attack or whether he died previously from other causes.

The woman, aged in her 60s, has not been publicly identified and an autopsy is underway.

A Houston police dive team recovered the body and alligator.

In 2015 in Texas, a 28-year-old man died after being attacked by a large alligator while swimming in Adams Bayou, about 30 miles east of Beaumont, Texas. At the time, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department said it was the first recorded alligator attack in Texas.

Although alligator attacks on humans are rare, they have been known to cause injury and kill people.

An 85-year-old woman was killed by an alligator while walking her dog in Florida in February 2023. According to witnesses, the alligator rushed out of the water and grabbed the woman’s dog. She was killed trying to save her dog.

Another Florida woman in her 80s was killed by two alligators after falling into a pond in Englewood, Florida in July 2022.