HOUSTON, TX – A police officer from Houston ended the life of an alligator who was discovered carrying human remains, thought to belong to a missing local woman, in its jaws. The tragic incident took place on Tuesday, according to authorities.
Early Tuesday, the Houston Police Department embarked on an intensive search for a woman speculated to be in her sixties who had gone missing. During the search, the officers happened upon an alligator in the Horsepen Bayou on the outskirts of Houston.
A deciding factor that led police to fatally shoot the alligator was the need to prevent it from further mutilating the human remains it carried in its jaws, as per an official statement by the Houston police.
Subsequent to the tragic event, the suspect’s remains were successfully retrieved by the police. Although authorities await the exact cause of death, which will only be made clear via autopsy, one thing is clear; the woman’s life ended in a grisly manner.
Authorities have yet to establish whether the woman fell prey to the alligator or the gator merely scavenged her already lifeless body. The obscure details of the incident have launched a full-scale investigation in an attempt to uncover the truth.
The identity of the deceased woman is yet to be verified by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences following the ongoing investigations concerning the incident.