From staff reports
One woman is dead after a possible alligator attack on Hilton Head Island on Tuesday.
The 69-year-old resident was found around 9:28 this morning near the edge of the lagoon near a golf course on Brams Point Road after Sheriff’s Office deputies, Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue, Beaufort County Coroner’s Office and Spanish Wells security personnel were called for a report of a possible alligator attack.
A press release from the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) stated that rescue efforts were made until an alligator measuring just over nine feet appeared and was guarding the woman, which interrupted the emergency efforts. The woman’s body was recovered after the alligator was safely removed from the area.
The Beaufort County Coroner’s Office will facilitate an autopsy on the woman.
Deputies learned that the woman was walking her dog earlier this morning when the attack occurred. It is not clear at this point where she was taken into the water.
“We don’t know where she went in,” Maj. Angela Viens, public information officer with BCSO said. “It is still up in the air as to how or where this happened.”
Viens confirmed that the dog has been found safe.
This is the second fatal alligator attack in Beaufort County in less than a year. On August 15, 2022, an 88-year-old Sun City woman was attacked by an alligator at a lagoon near her home.
