The mortal remains of a South African hotel boss have been found inside a 15-foot crocodile after it was airlifted .
Gabriel Batista, 59, was believed to have been eaten up in the croc-infested Komati River when he was swept away last week in a flood. Rescue crews tracked the man-eating croc for days before killing it to recover the man’s remains.
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Severed arms, a rib cage found inside reptile
A video captured the enormous croc being pulled from the river by a harness after a police commander was dropped down to retrieve the beast, which is estimated to weight more than 1,000 pounds.
Authorities cut open the croc’s belly and found two severed arms, half a rib cage and pieces of flesh — along with six pairs of shoes, none of which belonged to Batista. DNA testing on the body samples found inside the animal are still being conducted. Authorities want to know if the shoes are linked to other local residents or villagers. Authorities also didn’t know if Batista was drowned before he was eaten, and they don’t know if other parts of him could be found inside other crocodiles.
Tracking for days
Authorities were tracking other crocodiles before they finally found the right one.
“This very large one was not moving in the sun and showed typical signs of recent feeding as it has a massively full tummy and stayed out of the nearby water,” said Capt. Johan Potgieter.
“He made no effort to move despite the noise of the drones or our chopper overhead or any inclination to seek out food so we were sure it was this crocodile.”
Authorities killed the crocodile and Potgieter was lowered into the river to recover the animal.
“There was so many things that could go wrong, and the rope basically lowered me onto the snout of the crocodile so I was kind of hoping it really was properly dead,” he said.