Chapter 14 crocodile escape

At dusk on September 24, 1996. It was Mitchell Morgaret's time to do the dishes that night, and his mother had called him, but the 12-year-old was swimming leisurely in the two-acre pond behind his house.The home on the Cristo River in Florida was built over six years of vacations and weekends.The family just moved in three weeks ago. This idyllic and charming little pond is the source of a tributary of the Miller River.On one side of the pond lived the Mogarrits and three other families, and on the other side lived the family of gynecologist Joseph Fernants.Dr. Fernance was looking out of the window, enjoying the evening view of the pond.Their eyes fell on Mitchell and the others.Suddenly, about 50 yards to the left of the children, a moving object caught their attention. It turned out to be a huge crocodile approaching the children quickly and silently.

The doctor screamed to his wife and daughter, and the three rushed to the pond clapping and shouting.For a split second they distracted the crocodile, and the crocodile slowed down, but then it sped forward again. Mitchell didn't realize the danger at all. He was still lying in the water, looking at the rocks below through the clear water.Only the vent tube attached to the diving helmet sticks out of the water. The 11-foot alligator charged Mitchell relentlessly.Dr Fernanz recalled: "It moved like a torpedo and then opened its mouth and came at Mitchell head-on. We saw it bite the kid on the head while bouncing violently and flapping its tail. Water, high splash. I think Mitchell is doomed."

The alligator's sharp upper front teeth dug into Mitchell's scalp, creating a six-inch gash, while its lower teeth caught on the diving helmet and ripped it from Mitchell's face.The deviation of this force caused Mitchell's head to slip out of the crocodile's mouth. Mitchell didn't know what hit him, and he was suddenly overturned and sank four feet.As the alligator swam past him, Mitchell saw the white and green underbelly and its huge hind legs and claws.Under the water, Mitchell instinctively flapped the huge rubber fins tied to his feet, and swam desperately to the shore.

The Fernants continued to clap and shout to distract the crocodile.It was still circling there, but the child's condition was unclear.After a while, Mitchell swam out of the water to take a breath, and swam to the shore with all his strength.The crocodile was in hot pursuit. Mitchell's mother, Jessie, ran from the kitchen to the yard and yelled, and saw the little girl Kelly who was playing with Mitchell running out of the water.At first she thought the girl said the crocodile had caught a cat or a dog or something, "but when I saw the horror on Kelly's face, I knew something terrible had happened and I ran to the pond." She later Say. "When I saw the horror on Kelly's face, I knew something terrible had happened and I ran to the pond," she later said.

Jessie's blood was almost frozen and Mitchell was swimming towards her desperately, followed by the biggest alligator she had ever seen. Mitchell swam to within 20 yards of shore when Jesse arrived on the scene.Jessie yelled, "Quick, quick!" as she rushed to the water's edge and reached out to grab her son.However, the moment Mitchell reached the shore, the alligator caught up with him. "The crocodile opened its mouth and I even saw all its sharp teeth. It seemed like it could swallow at least half of Mitchell," Jesse recalled. "Mitchell looked so small and the crocodile's mouth was so So big. We were yelling like hell, and finally when I just grabbed Mitchell's hand, the alligator's mouth snapped off, and I thought Mitchell's leg was over."

Then came the contest between the 100-pound Jesse and the 400-pound crocodile. "I grabbed Mitchell's hand with both hands and pulled it with all my strength." Mitchell, who also weighed 100 pounds, was stopped in the middle and had no choice. In this desperate struggle, there is a special role, which is the 18-inch diving rubber fin on Mitchell's left leg that was bitten by the alligator.The crocodile must have been overwhelmed by the smell of rubber, and suddenly let go while Jessie was still holding on to her son's right hand and arm.Without looking back, Jesse dragged Mitchell out of the water and onto the embankment until he was completely out of the water.

Dr. Fernanz watched the alligator swim back into the depths of the pond. "It seemed disappointed," recalls the doctor, "and just drifted away from the shore and back into the swamp." Officials from the Florida Aquatic and Freshwater Fish Commission rushed to the scene to investigate.The attack was the eighth in Florida in 1996 and the forty-eighth recorded since 1948.While still rare, such attacks have increased in recent years as more people have entered the crocodiles' natural habitat, which may have caused some crocodiles to lose their fear of humans.At the same time, alligators such as opossums, raccoons, and skunks have been increasingly deprived of food as people build homes along the forks of the Miller River.Of course, the passage of various laws to protect endangered animals is also one of the reasons for the increase in the number of crocodiles.

Shortly after the hunt for the ferocious alligator began, a 6.5-foot female was found dead.However, all witnesses insisted that the alligator that attacked Mitchell was much larger than this one.Another crocodile was found the next day in the swamp along the pond and killed.At 11.53 feet long and 400 pounds, the alligator was enormous by any standard.The dent marks on Mitchell's diving helmet and snorkel matched his teeth. Gray Phelps, who is in charge of investigating the incident, explained that the attack was apparently caused by hunger. "By examining the crocodile's stomach, we found that it hadn't eaten for at least a week." Possibly living in this little bay off the Miller River tributary for many years, he also noted that historically, people had no reason to be afraid of crocodiles, "I grew up swimming around crocodiles and they never bothered anyone. .Now, however, their hunger and reduced fear of humans make them even more dangerous."

Three months after the alligator attack, Mitchell was back around his backyard and the quiet waterfront of the Miller River.The breeze blows the tall cedars on the shore and the moss hanging on the oak trees, the sun shines on the grass on the shore, making it shine, fish jump out of the water from time to time, splashing waves, and the distant The herons and egrets also stroll proudly along the river.The sight hardly made it possible to imagine such a breathless event. Mitchell explained that he is not giving up swimming and diving.Nor did he believe that he would be returning to the Miller fork anytime soon.While he often has flashbacks to that kiss of death, his parents are adamant the experience won't leave permanent scars on his psyche.

Standing by the river that afternoon, Mitchell said how lucky he was that the scars from the attack had all been covered up.His thick, long brown hair concealed scars on his scalp, and scars on his calves and ankles were hidden by socks.It will never be known how the child escaped death twice. The only visible scars from the attack were three small scars on the back of Mitchell's right hand.Mitchell paid no heed to this, in fact he took them as loving keepsakes.These are the scratch marks on his hands from his mother's fingernails, and they are a testament to the almost superhuman strength that Mitchell's mother exerted in pulling him from the alligator's mouth!