Officials said the woman killed by an alligator in South Carolina on Aug. 20 was trying to protect her dog from the gator.
In a statement on Aug. 20, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said it received a call at around 9:30 a.m. that someone was attacked by an alligator near the Sea Pines Plantation, a resort community on Hilton Head Island. Deputies then saw a body in a nearby lagoon.
“When they arrived, fire personnel located the deceased woman inside of the lagoon and recovered her body, while deputies interviewed witnesses. Witness accounts indicate that the woman—who will be identified after her next of kin are notified—was walking her dog near the lagoon when she was attacked and pulled underwater by the alligator,” the sheriff’s office stated.
The woman was identified as Cassandra Cline, 45. She was walking her pet border collie not far from her home on the island when the gator appeared.
Officials stated that the Sheriff’s Office Environmental Crimes Unit, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and Sea Pines Security were searching for the alligator.
The gator, estimated at about eight feet in length, was captured by 11 a.m. local time and was killed, David Lucas, a spokesman for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, confirmed.
Protecting Her Dog
“She was walking the dog near the lagoon and the alligator came out of the water and tried to get the dog,” Lucas said. “The lady tried to rescue the dog and a maintenance worker ran over to help.”
Alligator attacks on humans are extremely rare, Lucas said. Since 1976, there have only been about 20 attacks on people in the state, he said. Until 2016, none of those attacks had been fatal. That year, a 90-year-old woman wandered away from a Charleston assisted living facility and was found dead in a pond.
An autopsy on Cline will be done in the coming days at the Medical University of South Carolina to confirm the cause of her death.
The dog she was trying to protect survived, officials said.
Thomas DiMaio, who rents a house near where the attack happened, said he heard shrieks when he was in the shower but mistakenly thought they were from a bird.
When he went outside 30 minutes later, he found a crowd gathering beside the road, next to a bag of treats Cline had been carrying.
One of her shoes and her hat dotted a trail leading to the water.
‘The Dog Was Her Child’
“It’s really sad,” DiMaio said. “She didn’t have any children. The dog was her child, I guess.”
The Sea Pines Community Services Associates said that neighborhood officials were “extremely saddened by this news,” and noted that community members were alerted of the attack through Facebook.
“We are shocked and heartbroken over this loss and are praying for Ms. Cline’s family and loved ones during this difficult time,” Sea Pines President Bret Martin added in a statement.
DiMaio said Cline and her husband divided their time between Hilton Head and their home near Syracuse, New York. DiMaio said he would see Cline and her dog walking two or three times daily, and the woman often carried a bag of treats she would feed to her pet.
“She was a very pleasant woman,” DiMaio said. “Very friendly.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
