Authorities identify 85-year-old woman killed in alligator attack in Fort Pierce

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office identified Gloria Serge, 85, as the woman killed by an alligator in Fort Pierce.

FWC states, Serge was walking her dog along a retention pond in the Spanish Lakes Fairways Community when a 10-foot alligator pulled her into the water after trying to nab her dog.

Since the attack, the alligator has been captured and killed.

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"Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of the victim," the FWC said in a statement.

The dog survived the incident.

Edge isn't alone in people who have died in alligator deaths over the years. The FWC provided data on the number of alligator incidents going back to 1948, in total there have been 442 attacks in Florida, 26 of them being fatal.

In the most recent years of 2018 and 2019, a 47-year-old woman, Shizuka Matzuki was killed walking her dogs at the edge of an unnamed lake at Silver Lakes Rotary Nature Park in Broward County on June 6, 2018. The alligator that killed her was a 12 foot 3 inch male.

And in 2019, Jardan Battle, 31, was killed by an alligator trying to evade police. He tried swimming across the retention pond in Fort Meyers on April 22, 2019. The alligator was recorded to be 10 feet and 3 inches long.

The FWC data also showed in 2021 there were no fatalities from an alligator attack but there were seven major incidents and 2 minor incidents which involved an alligator.

And in 2017 there were total of 12 incidents, with 10 of those incidents being considered major.

The most alligator incidents were recorded in 1977 where 14 people had an encounter with an alligator. Out of the 14, 1 person died, 13 were major incidents and 1 was minor.

According the FWC major bites are where a victims injuries required medical care. Minor bites are where the victims bites only required first aid treatment.

All bites in the data are considered unprovoked attacks, FWC states.