The body of the toddler boy who was dragged underwater by an alligator while at a Disney resort was recovered intact on Wednesday by search crews. Parents Matt and Melissa Graves attempted to rescue their son from the jaws of the animal but were unable to do so.
In a report from the Orlando Sentinel, Mr. Graves tried to save his boy, Lane, from the alligator’s jaws. Mrs. Graves called for assistance from a nearby lifeguard to no avail. The Graves family had been at the resort since Sunday, with Lane’s 4-year-old sister.
From the Sentinel:
After a 16-hour search for the boy sent helicopters overhead and boats into the man-made lake, divers with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office Wednesday found Lane’s remains. They recovered his body, intact, about 15 yards from the shore, six feet underwater. It appears Lane drowned in the roughly 172-acre lake after the gator pulled him underwater about 9 p.m., said Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings.
Lane’s death marks the first alligator attack on the park’s property since a predator bit the legs of an 8-year-old boy, who survived, on Disney’s Fort Wilderness campground in 1986. The accident brings more grief to Orange County after the worst mass shooting in U.S. history Sunday and the slaying of singer Christina Grimmie following a Friday concert.
Officials investigating the matter found and killed five alligators, although the one who killed the boy could not be determined. Unlike the incident involving the boy who fell into the gorilla pit at Cleveland Zoo,
Unlike the incident involving the boy who fell into the gorilla pit at Cleveland Zoo, there has not been much discussion of negligence or loud public outcry over the killing of the alligators in comparison to the slaying of the gorilla Harambe.
Further, there hasn’t been much chatter surrounding the parents facing charges despite warnings at the Disney resort telling guests to stay out of the water. In the case of the Cleveland Zoo mother, who was Black, and the Graves family, who are white, the hushed tones have some questioning a potential racial disparity.
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Photo: screen cap
