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Gator victim: 'I was ... in shock'
By BRADY DENNIS
© St. Petersburg Times, TAMPA -- Dagmar Dow never saw the 9-foot-8, 350-pound alligator that jerked her under water as she swam at a local nudist resort. "I knew something had pulled me under, that's it," Dow, 43, said Thursday from her bed at Tampa General Hospital. "It just went down so fast. I was more in shock probably than pain." Her husband, Ray Dow, repeatedly kicked the alligator as he pulled his wife ashore. "I looked over at my wife and she went down, like if you can picture one of the scenes out of Jaws," said Ray Dow, who was swimming nearby. "It was like a giant vacuum cleaner sucked her under water." The attack at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday at the Lake Como nudist resort in Pasco County nearly severed Dagmar Dow's left foot and left deep lacerations on her right arm. Doctors operated Wednesday and scheduled two more surgeries for today and Monday. It is not clear yet if the foot can be saved, her husband said. The attack left the Dows angry, not at the gator but at people who have been feeding it. The Dows, who have hired an attorney, cited several previous complaints about the gator, suggesting it should have been removed before the attack. The couple moved to the resort about six months ago from Arizona. Before that, they spent time in Wyoming and Montana. Alligators were a new experience. "Alligator was not the first thing that crossed my mind," Ray Dow said. "I was just kicking whatever was pulling her down. I was just trying to get her to shore." He said he was terrified at what he saw when they got there. "I picked her up and saw her foot handing by a couple of pieces of flesh and sinew," he said. "We swim in the lake every day. If there are any alligators within sight, we don't go out. That alligator was never visible on the surface of the water until after the attack." The Dows, who don't have health insurance, were practicing for a scuba diving test in preparation for a trip to the Florida Keys. Nearby were their two sons, Dustin, 12, and Raphael, 15. Another son, Tibor, 20, was camping in Montana, Ray Dow said. Propped up in her hospital bed, with bandages from her right shoulder down to her wrist, Dagmar Dow said she always felt safe swimming in Big Moss Lake, the centerpiece of the resort. The couple said they were aware that alligators lived in the lake, but nothing as large or dangerous as the one that attacked. "Everybody said it would be safe, but you shouldn't swim at night," she said. "They said the daytime would be fine." Florida Fish and Wildlife officials said the alligator probably has lost its fear of humans. That drew the brunt of the Dows' ire. "My and my wife's anger is not directed at the alligator or anything else, other than the idiots feeding the alligators," said Ray Dow, a computer programmer. "I hope we find out who it was, and I hope they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." Feeding alligators is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida. It is punishable by up to $500 in fines or 60 days in jail. Their New Jersey attorney, Clifford Singer, hopped a plane on short notice to represent them in person Thursday. "If in fact this alligator was being fed, we have real questions about how this could have been allowed to go on," Singer said. He said the gator previously had been targeted for removal, "yet no one on the property who used the lake was told it was there." "We are not closing any doors," he said. "Obviously, there are areas that have to be explored." Resort officials confirmed Thursday that based on earlier complaints, a trapper had unsuccessfully tried to capture a gator at the resort last Friday. The gator was caught around 10:45 p.m. Wednesday and later destroyed. Big Moss Lake, where the Dows were swimming, was closed June 22 because of a high bacteria count. It later reopened. Lake Como resort, which opened in 1940 at Leonard and Cot roads, has been a resident-owned co-op since 1997, when the neighbors bought out former owner Kathy Cotterill. Resort officials said Wednesday's attack is the first in the park's 60-year history. It came on the heels of an even more tragic attack Saturday in Polk County. Two-year-old Alexandria Murphy was found dead near the shoreline of Lake Cannon, the victim of an attack by an alligator that authorities said had been fed and had lost its fear of people. Dagmar Dow said Thursday she'll find a new swimming hole when she recovers. "Not in the lake," she said. "In the pool, yes. But not in the lake."
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Headlines From the Times local news desks Howard Troxler |
