Alligator drags 85-year-old to death in Florida retirement community’s lake. Family sues

The family of an 85-year-old woman who was dragged into a lake by a large alligator and drowned behind her home in Florida has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

“One year ago, I received the phone call that every son dreads. My mother, Gloria, a healthy, vibrant and beautiful woman was dead,” Bill Serge, the son of Gloria Serge, said in a statement.

“I never could have imagined the agonizing way in which my mom spent her last minutes on this earth,” he said.

When Gloria Serge was walking her dog named Trooper at Spanish Lakes Fairways, a retirement community in Fort Pierce, a 10-foot-long, 700-pound alligator attacked her on Feb. 20, 2023, according to a Jan. 25 news release from Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith PLLC, the law firm representing her family.

It grabbed her foot and dragged her into the nearby retention pond, where it “disfigured her body and drowned her,” the lawsuit filed Jan. 25 said.

Gloria Serge’s body was pulled from the water after authorities responded to multiple emergency calls dialed by witnesses, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission previously told the Miami Herald.

After the attack, the alligator was captured by a nuisance alligator trapper and euthanized the next day, according to FWC, the Miami Herald reported.

Gloria Serge’s family is suing real estate holding and management company Wynne Building Corporation, which owns and manages Spanish Lakes Fairways.

The lawsuit accuses the business of negligence — including by not warning residents of alligators — leading to the woman’s death

Joel Wynne, the president of Wynne Building Corporation, told McClatchy News on Jan. 26 that Gloria Serge was the first resident attacked by an alligator since the company developed the community 37 years ago.

“We certainly understand the tragedy and the feelings of Mrs. Serge’s family,” Wynne said.

However, he said “Mrs. Serge was a longtime resident and certainly knew of the presence of Alligators and that they were inherently dangerous animals.”

With the lawsuit, Gloria’s family is seeking more than $50,000 in damages.

Bill Serge said his mother, who never learned how to swim, “drowned in the most violent and terrifying way possible.”

“This could have been prevented — it should never have happened — and God willing it will NEVER happen to anyone again,” he said.

Woman was ‘encouraged, if not forced’ to walk near water with alligators

Gloria Serge was a mother of five children, a grandmother of 15 children and great-grandmother of nine children, according to her family’s attorneys.

She moved into the Spanish Lakes Fairways community nearly 30 years before she died and owned one of the property’s homes for 21 years, according to the lawsuit.

There, community residents and staff were allowed to feed wildlife, including alligators, the lawsuit said.

Before Gloria Serge’s death, maintenance workers fed the alligator that killed her chicken scraps and named it Henry, according to the family’s attorneys.

Wynne Building Corporation knew multiple alligators “that met the definition of a nuisance” lived on the property but didn’t warn residents of the potential dangers and didn’t have the reptiles removed, the lawsuit said.

Nuisance alligators are at least 4 feet long and pose a potential threat, according to FWC, which can send nuisance trappers to remove them under these circumstances.

The alligator that killed Gloria met the agency’s definition.

Gloria Serge was “encouraged, if not forced,” to walk her small dog near the water where alligators were, as she was threatened with eviction when she walked her pet elsewhere, according to the lawsuit.

In January 2020, she received an eviction warning from Spanish Lakes Fairways over complaints about her walking her dog in “non-approved areas,” a copy of the notice provided to McClatchy News said.

The property’s management allowed other residents to walk by the same retention pond she was killed in, allowed residents to use non-motorized watercrafts in the pond and allowed fishing there — without issuing warnings, according to the lawsuit.

“There were no signs posted around the lake warning residents of the presence of an alligator, and the property managers encouraged people to sit near the lake by placing a bench along the shoreline,” attorney Gary S. Lesser said in a statement.

“This flies in the face of common sense and warnings from wildlife experts,” he added.

With the lawsuit, Gloria Serge’s family demands a trial by jury.

“The reality of losing our mom has really started to set in,” Bill Serge said. “She has missed the birth of 3 additional great grandchildren, and we are looking forward to 2 weddings where mom won’t be with us. But it’s not the big events that will hurt the most…those are certainly going to be hard.”

“She would talk to my sisters on the phone every day just to say hi — she would Facetime me all the time — to tell me what was going on in the neighborhood — or to tell me about the new pizza place she’d been to — she was just simply a part of our lives every day — and missing this — knowing that it was completely unnecessary — that’s what truly hurts the most,” he added.

FWC’s Nuisance Alligator Hotline can be reached by calling 866-392-4286.

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