Investigation Underway After Alligators Found Eating Human Body In Canal

A pair of fishermen made a gruesome discovery Monday when they found two alligators feasting on a human body in a southeast Florida canal, police said.

Officers responded with assault rifles and gator trappers after getting a 911 call from the fishermen around 6 p.m. near the Everglades, Davie police told the Sun Sentinel.

Authorities initially were unable to identify the sex of the body, and they approximated that it had been in the water for at least a few days. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation has since identified the body as a man.

Exactly how the individual died remains unknown, but the Broward County Medical Examiner is conducting an investigation, the Sentinel reported.

“What happened to them? How did they end up here? Could it be a homicide, could it be a suicide, could it be natural, a fisherman? We don’t know. That’s what the next step is to figure that out,” Police Sgt. Pablo Castaneda told CBS Miami.

Requests for comment from police, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation and the medical examiner were not immediately returned.