The 31-year-old Florida woman fatally mauled by a massive alligator was kneeling in just three feet of water when the reptile attacked – leaving her boyfriend desperately trying to wrench her from its jaws as it ripped apart her arms, officials said.
Brittany Clark was swimming with her boyfriend and best friend in the Econlockhatchee River at Little Big Econ State Forest – nearly 30 miles inland – Sunday afternoon when the monstrous gator suddenly lunged from the water and locked its toothy maw on her, ripping one arm “completely off.”
“They were hiking and they just stopped to swim,” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesperson Chad Weber told reporters at a press conference on Monday.
“She was bitten on both of her arms. The boyfriend was the one that made the phone call. He was trying to get her from the alligator’s mouth, and on the way to the hospital she did pass away from her injuries.”