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Officials Find Arm Of Missing Woman Found Inside Alligator's Stomach

Officials Find Arm Of Missing Woman Found Inside Alligator's Stomach

Shizuka Matsuki was attacked by a 12-foot, 6-inch alligator when she was walking in the Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

The body of a woman who went missing in Florida last Friday has been found, local officials have confirmed, explaining that she had been killed by an alligator while walking her dogs.

The woman, Shizuka Matsuki, was attacked by a 12-foot, 6-inch alligator when she was walking in the Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park in south Florida.

The alligator thought to have been involved in the attack has since been captured and killed, with a necropsy of the reptile revealing a human arm in its stomach, the Sun Sentinel reports.

Search teams then went into the lake at the nature park to recover the rest of Matsuki's body.

In a statement, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said: "The victim of this tragic incident has been identified as Shizuka Matsuki, 47 years of age, of Plantation, Florida.

"This tragedy is heartbreaking for everyone involved, and our sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of the victim at this time."

Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park.
PA

The organisation also tweeted to say it would be conducting a 'thorough investigation' into the incident, adding: "We would like to extend our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Shizuka Matsuki.

"Search teams located the body of Ms. Matsuki June 8 at the Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park lake in Davie."

One of the dogs that belonged to Matsuki - a pit bull - also suffered some injuries after it 'got bit by the gator', as Davie Police Major Dale Engle told the Sun Sentinel.

Local residents also told the newspaper that they had complained about alligators in the park, with some even explaining that they had lost pets that wandered too close to the lake.

PA

Jeff Polhman, Davie's Assistant Director of Parks, said to the newspaper that trappers had been hired within the last 18-24 months in a bid to capture the alligator, but they had not had any success.

One of Matsuki's neighbours, Peter Limia, told the Miami Herald that her husband had warned her not to walk near the nature park.

"He had warned her not to take the dogs over to that place because they had seen gators before and it isn't safe," Limia, 37, said.

"She was just your ordinary soccer mom. It's a tragedy."

Jim Borelli, a friend of the family, also said that Matsuki and her husband have been known to walk their dogs in the park previously, and that while the couple didn't actually live in the neighbourhood, Matsuki enjoyed finding different places to walk their dogs.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, Florida, US News, Alligator, Animals