A South Carolina woman died Tuesday after being attacked by an alligator while walking her dog near a golf course, authorities said.
The 69-year-old woman, who has not been named, was found dead in the Hilton Head Island community of Spanish Wells, the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The woman was found at the edge of a lagoon that borders a golf course. An alligator appeared to be protecting the woman, disrupting emergency rescue efforts, the sheriff’s office said.
The alligator was safely removed and the woman’s body was recovered. She is pending an autopsy.
This is the second fatal alligator attack in Beaufort County in the past year, sheriff’s officials said. An 88-year-old Sun City woman was attacked by an alligator in a pond near her home in August 2022.
