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Woman Killed by Gator on Kiawah Island Was ‘Fascinated,’ Took Pictures Before Attack [“I Guess I Won’t Do This Again”]
The Post and Courier ^ | May 5, 2020 | Gregory Yee

Posted on 05/17/2020 5:24:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Cynthia Covert was waist deep in a pond behind her friend’s home on Kiawah Island clutching a rope as her friends tried to get her away from the alligator that dragged her into the water.

As her friends pulled, she calmly said, “I guess I won’t do this again,” according to a supplemental report released Tuesday by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office.

Moments later, the alligator rolled. Covert, 58, went under.

The supplemental report provides further details on South Carolina’s third deadly alligator attack in four years.

Covert, a Johns Island resident, was on Kiawah doing her friend’s nails, the report said. The friend told investigators that Covert was “very talkative and acting strange.”

The deputy asked what she meant by that and the friend replied, “that at the salon Covert acts very professional but today she was very relaxed and excited that her boyfriend was coming from Tennessee to visit.”

Covert had a glass of wine but her friend wasn’t sure if she had consumed any other intoxicants, the report said.

“When Covert was doing her nails on the porch she saw the alligator in the pond and was fascinated by the alligator,” the report said. ”(She) stated after Covert was finished with her nails she went outside of the porch and was taking pictures of the alligator.”

The friend was cleaning her porch when she saw Covert by the water, the report said. She started yelling for Covert to get back, but her cries were ignored. She yelled out that the alligator grabbed a deer from that spot “the other day.”

Covert replied, “I don’t look like a deer.”

Then she moved to touch the alligator, the report said.

At that point, the homeowner’s husband ran down the stairs and tried to get to Covert, but the reptile had already grabbed hold of her left leg and started to pull her into the water, the report said.

A neighbor, hearing the commotion, came to see what was going on and went back to his home to get a rope, which they threw to Covert to try to pull her out of the pond, the report said.

By the time the alligator had Covert in waist-deep water and rolled, it was too late.

Deputies and firefighters arrived at the scene on Salt Cedar Lane and saw no movement, the report said. After about 10 or 15 minutes, Covert’s body surfaced but the alligator still had hold of her leg and took her body back under.

The alligator and Covert’s body surfaced a few moments later and a deputy shot the reptile in the head with his 9 mm handgun, causing it to release Covert, the report said.

Crews retrieved her body, which was intact and had severe wounds on the left leg, the report said. The alligator was shot several more times until it died and was brought to shore.

Covert is the third person to die from an alligator encounter in the state, according to S.C. Department of Natural Resources records.

The death of a 90-year-old woman in July 2016 in a pond outside a West Ashley extended-care facility was the first alligator-related fatality on record in the state, according to DNR.

In August 2018, South Carolina’s second fatal alligator attack in two years occurred when a 45-year-old woman was killed at a resort community on Hilton Head Island.

When the body of an elderly man who’d been reported missing was discovered in a pond on Kiawah Island in June 2019 with bite marks, some feared the incident was another alligator-related fatality.

But authorities later determined the man died of natural causes before the animal came upon his body.


TOPICS: Local News; Outdoors; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: alcohol; alligator; amosmoses; darwin; gators; qanon; southcarolina
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To: Pajamajan

Gator-19


21 posted on 05/17/2020 5:46:09 PM PDT by Texas resident (Remember in November)
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To: nickcarraway

Tastes like chicken.


22 posted on 05/17/2020 5:47:39 PM PDT by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
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To: Secret Agent Man
“I feel for the deer it killed the day before.”

The deer, alligator, me nor the lady feel for you.

PS: Lol @ feel.

23 posted on 05/17/2020 5:48:03 PM PDT by coaster123 (Virus = First Plane Strikes Tower)
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To: nickcarraway

“The death of a 90-year-old woman in July 2016 in a pond outside a West Ashley extended-care facility was the first alligator-related fatality on record in the state, according to DNR.

In August 2018, South Carolina’s second fatal alligator attack in two years occurred when a 45-year-old woman was killed at a resort community on Hilton Head Island.

So...playing the odds, good for another two years?
Never been to Florida, maybe now is the time.


24 posted on 05/17/2020 5:48:13 PM PDT by READINABLUESTATE (I'm essential!)
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To: nickcarraway
...I don’t look like a deer...

No, you look like a different kind of lunch meat.

25 posted on 05/17/2020 5:48:28 PM PDT by CurlyDave
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To: nickcarraway

Methinks there was more than one glass of wine involved.


26 posted on 05/17/2020 5:48:41 PM PDT by KevinB ("Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." - Charles Darwin)
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To: nickcarraway

Ironic: Her last name was Covert, which means discreetly hidden. Her last act was overt, not ‘covert’ at all!


27 posted on 05/17/2020 5:50:22 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Pajamajan

No but they tried to make it look like she was doing nails at her bosses home, that owned a nail salon

They tried thats for sure


28 posted on 05/17/2020 5:51:37 PM PDT by Bell Bouy II
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To: READINABLUESTATE

This was actually South Carolina. I’m sure Florida has higher numbers.


29 posted on 05/17/2020 5:53:19 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: KevinB

MDMA?


30 posted on 05/17/2020 5:53:49 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: TexasGator
Okay, re read...

She tried to touch the gator.

31 posted on 05/17/2020 5:54:32 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken th sprayat's fore<p> sure)
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To: lee martell

Her patents should have named her Amos Moses.


32 posted on 05/17/2020 5:55:03 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: outofsalt

Like pork but fishy.


33 posted on 05/17/2020 5:56:22 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: nickcarraway

“This was actually South Carolina”

Oops. Been reading a lot of “Florida man” stories lately.


34 posted on 05/17/2020 5:56:34 PM PDT by READINABLUESTATE (I'm essential!)
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To: nickcarraway

AMOS MOSES...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlrUzAmKO1Y


35 posted on 05/17/2020 5:59:05 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Deaf Smith

WHERE did she ‘try to touch’ that Gator?


36 posted on 05/17/2020 6:00:15 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: nickcarraway

Darwin Award at its finest.


37 posted on 05/17/2020 6:01:29 PM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: lee martell

Touched his Tooter


38 posted on 05/17/2020 6:03:04 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: mylife

Lol!
Even City Folks know not to do that!


39 posted on 05/17/2020 6:04:50 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: outofsalt
Tastes like chicken.

Who... the lady or the gator?

40 posted on 05/17/2020 6:05:29 PM PDT by Haiku Guy (It's Winnie-the-Flu / Put the blame where it belongs / On Winnie-the-Poo)
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