Sheriff: Charges unlikely after 2-year-old killed by gator
Florida Fish and Wildlife officers searched for a 2-year-old boy boy early today, after the boy was dragged into the water Tuesday night by an alligator near Disney’s upscale Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Law enforcement officials search the Seven Seas Lagoon outside the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa today in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., after a two-year-old toddler was dragged into the lake by an alligator.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. » A sheriff said charges are unlikely against a Nebraska couple after an alligator killed their 2-year-old son by snatching him out of shallow water at a Walt Disney World beach, but the entertainment giant is reviewing whether to add gator warning signs.
Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings told The Associated Press after a news conference Wednesday there was no indication Matt and Melissa Graves of suburban Omaha, Nebraska, committed any crime that contributed to the reptile grabbing their son, Lane Graves.
“There’s nothing in this case to indicate that there was anything extraordinary” in terms of neglect by the parents, Demings said.
Demings said his department and the state wildlife agency would look into the issue of signs around Seven Seas Lagoon, where Disney had posted “no swimming” signs but no warnings about the presence of alligators. Searchers removed five of the reptiles from the water while looking for the child, who was attacked at a small beach area near nightfall Tuesday.
A Disney representative, speaking on condition of anonymity because the company had yet to prepare a formal statement, said Disney would “thoroughly review” the sign issue in the future. Beaches that were closed during the search remained off limits to visitors, the company said.
Divers found the child’s body about 16 hours after authorities first got the call that a reptile had taken the boy at Seven Seas Lagoon, which borders the Magic Kingdom theme park. The park is one of the world’s most popular tourist spots, drawing millions of visitors annually.
Demings said it appeared the gator drowned the child and left the body near the spot where he was last seen. An autopsy was planned.
“Of course the family was distraught, but also I believe somewhat relieved that his body was found intact,” Demings told a news conference.
A family friend released a statement on behalf of the Graves thanking well-wishers for their “thoughts and hope-filled prayers.” CEO Michael Iaccarino of Infogroup, a marketing company where Matt Graves is chief data officer, said Graves’ family “is the light of his life.”
In the family’s Omaha neighborhood of Elkhorn, friends and neighbors reacted with disbelief and shock.
The principal of their church parish described the Graves parents as caring and attentive parents.
“The St. Patrick’s Parish and school community is just flat out devastated,” Norman Hale, principal of St. Patrick’s Parish Catholic School, told Omaha station KMTV.
Wildlife officials said the attack was a rarity in a state with a gator population estimated at 1 million. But it still shocked visitors in a city built on tourism.
“It’s the most magical place on Earth, supposedly,” said Michelle Stone, a Detroit-area resident visiting Disney for 10 days with her two children. “To come here with your family and (be) having this great time … There are no words.”
In a statement from Disney World Resort President George A. Kalogridis, the company said it was “doing what we can” to help the family.
Authorities said the boy waded into no more than 1 or 2 feet of water in the lagoon around nightfall Tuesday when he was taken from a small beach. The boy’s father desperately tried to fight off the gator, suffering cuts on a hand, but he could not save his son. Neither could a nearby lifeguard, officials said.
Nick Wiley with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said witnesses estimated that the alligator was 4 feet to 7 feet long. One of the five gators that searchers removed from the water may have been responsible for the attack, he said.
The beach where the reptile grabbed the child is part of the luxury Grand Floridian resort, across the lake from Magic Kingdom. The lake, which stretches over about 200 acres and reaches a depth of 14 feet, feeds into a series of canals that wind through the entire Disney property.
More than 50 law enforcement personnel searched the well-tended lagoon along with an alligator tracker and marine units equipped with sonar to search the lake’s sandy, mostly flat bottom. The sheriff said a dive team found the child’s remains.
Though Florida has grown to the nation’s third-most populous state, fatal alligator attacks remain rare. Before the child’s death, 23 people had been killed by wild alligators in Florida since 1973, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission statistics.
The grim news was only the latest for Orlando, a city struck by tragedy in the past few days.
On Sunday, a gunman opened fire at a gay nightclub in Orlando, leaving 49 people dead in the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. On Friday night, Christina Grimmie, 22, a contestant on season six of “The Voice,” was fatally shot as she signed autographs after a show in Orlando.
Associated Press writers Joshua Replogle in Lake Buena Vista, Florida; Freida Frisaro and Jennifer Kay in Miami; and Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to show that the child’s father is named Matt Graves, not Will Graves.
26 responses to “Sheriff: Charges unlikely after 2-year-old killed by gator”
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Very sad! Condolences to the Graves family and kudos for law enforcement for their tenacious efforts in recovering the body of the victim.
Why is an autopsy need?
needed?
Probably, to prove that the child was killed by an aligator, and not a fabricated story.
So was the body found in a gator or not?
“··it appeared the gator pulled the child into deeper water and drowned him, leaving the body near the spot where he was last seen.” So sad.
Legal requirement in death cases like this. Post-mortem examination evidence also becomes very important in criminal (not likely here) and civil (very likely) cases.
Agree.
Aligators are all over Georgia and Florida. My parents created a 17 acre lake on their property in Georgia, over 100 miles northeast of the Okefenokee swamp, and aligators found their way into it.
How many millions will Disney pay to the family of the boy in an out of court settlement? From a public relations standpoint far cheaper for Disney to give this family millions then fight with this family in civill court. Wonder how many attorneys have already contacted this family hoping to represent them against Disney? Disney will probably start placing some steel netting with underwater motion sensors to create safe swimming zones in the lagoons after this gator attack.
Swimming in the lake/lagoon was banned years ago, reportedly because of pollution and guests who had contracted flesh eating bacteria. When the park first opened, swimming was allowed in the lake and in fact Disney originally had installed a wave making machine off the shores of the Polynesian Resort which is right next to where the alligator attack occurred. I’m sure the presence of gators in the Park’s waters also had something to do with the swimming ban. About 10 years ago during a visit to the Magic Kingdom there I was surprised to see tourists feeding a gator next to the dock in the Rivers of America area, across from Tom Sawyer’s Island and next to the River Boat ride landing. Something I never expected to encounter within the park itself, however, if you look at a map, that water way is connected by a canal to the lake where yesterday’s attack occurred.
He was a toddler and he was not in the water he was on the beach. The gator came on to the shore and grabbed him.
“The child had waded no more than 1 or 2 feet into the water…”
Many news reports place him in the water, wading but not swimming. Not that it makes a huge difference. RIP.
Sorry, I misread.
Of course the child was wading. How many TWO year olds have learned to swim?
My deepest ALOHA to his ohana. So sad…
It’s incomprehensible to me that there was ever event a hint of consideration to charge those poor suffering parents with any kind of crime. Wow.
It is very sad but they could have been charged for negligence if they had allowed their son to wonder around without any supervision. Since this was probably not the case, no charges were made. It would be similar to leaving a child in a hot car causing him/her to die. The parents could be charged for the death. Always keep an eye out on children!
“but the entertainment giant is reviewing whether to add gator warning signs”
Reviewing? Signs?
How about getting rid of the gators, or completely fencing them off?
Can’t get rid of the gators. Just like can’t rid the ocean of sharks.
A “Beware of Alligators” sign would not sit well for Disney to have along the lake. That would surely get tourists thinking before vacationing there. Story says a lifeguard was present. Why didn’t he or she ask the people to take their child out of the water?
Spot on! Could you imagine every beach on Maui, Kauai and Oahu with “Beware Tigah Sharks” on the white pearly sands?
Bring out the checkbook, Disney. You know it.
I have tried and tried to understand this story. Where was this child parents at the time of this incident? Why would you let a 2 year old wonder off by him/her self and yet where there is water? So many unanswered questions. The resort finds that the parents did not commit any crime. I’m still confused. I feel for the parents, but where were you?
Why put more signs up when a 2 year old can’t read?