The body of the two-year-old boy who was dragged into a Lagoon by an
alligator near a Disney resort in Orlando on Tuesday night has been
found. was recovered from a lagoon at the Walt The boy has been
identified as Lane Graves, the son of Matthew, 42, and Melissa Graves,
38, of Elkhorn, Nebraska. His identity was revealed by the Orange County
Sheriff Jerry Demings at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Demings said that dive teams had located the toddler’s body ‘intact’ in the Seven Seas Lagoon.
He said divers located a body around 1:45pm and was pulled out around 3:30pm.
The Graves family were in Orlando on vacation and had arrived on Sunday,
unfortunately this terrifying incident occurred on the third day of
their vacation.
Lane had been playing in the man made lagoon which wasn’t very deep
around 9:20pm when the alligator attacked and dragged him underwater.
The hotel had a ‘No swimming’ sign there but there was no warning of
alligators in the area.
The boy’s father tried frantically and wrestled with the alligator to
save him, but could not pry the toddler from the alligator’s jaw. The
father came off with huge Alligator bite marks on his shoulder but
couldn’t save his son.
A Disney lifeguard said the boy was 10 feet from the shore when the
alligator attacked him. He said they all tried to save the boy while the
Dad was wrestling with the alligator but they didn’t succeed.
He said:
‘We have lifeguards on duty at the play area but at the beach we don’t
have any lifeguards because you’re not supposed to be in the water,’ the
lifeguard said.
During the search, wildlife officials caught six alligators in the lake
and killed them all. They said in order to know which gator snatched the
child, forensics will have to be used to make that determination.
Demings said they found the boy’s body in the lake intact.
‘His body was completely intact,’ Demings said. ‘The body has now been
turned over to the Orange County medical office for an autopsy.’
‘Of course, the family was distraught but also, I believe, somewhat
relieved that we were able to find their son with his body intact,’
Demings said.
Bill Wilson of New Harmony, Indiana, said he watched the commotion from
the balcony of his room at the Grand Floridian on the resort’s beach
area. He said he heard screams and splashing coming from a darkened edge
of the lake and thought some people were fighting.
โI heard somebody screaming and yelling. I thought someone got in a
fight,โ Wilson said.โI looked over and here comes one of the lifeguards
who screamed โEverybody get out of the water.’
The mother was there and she was frantic, running up and down looking.โ
