Family in 'Unbearable Pain' After Mother Found in Gator's Jaws

UPDATE Sep 25, 2023 2:13 PM CDT

The daughter of a Florida woman found dead in an alligator's jaws says the family is going through "grief and sorrow and unbearable pain." In a Facebook post, Breauna Dorris said her mother, 41-year-old Sabrina Peckham, was part of the homeless population in a wooded area near McCay Creek in Pinellas Country. Fox News reports. "It is believed that she may have been walking to or from her camp site near the creek in the dark and the alligator attacked from the water," Dorris wrote, adding that "no one deserves to die like this." The alligator, almost 14 feet long, was euthanized. Authorities say they are trying to confirm the cause of Peckham's death. WESH reports that she was arrested in July for trespassing on a county wetland.

Sep 25, 2023 3:00 AM CDT

After locals reported seeing an alligator carrying human remains in its mouth in Florida's Pinellas County on Friday, authorities pulled the body of a 41-year-old woman from a waterway in Ridgecrest. They say they are investigating the cause of death of the woman, identified as Sabrina Peckham, after a gator that was nearly 14 feet long was found in the same canal, USA Today reports. Authorities said the gator was later humanely euthanized, Fox News reports. "I never thought I'd see one out here," one resident tells WFLA. "I thought it would be in the swamps and all that, but it was a big gator out here in our water."