Yesterday numerous news outlets, including The State newspaper reported that 57 year old Cynthia Covert had been drowned to death by a 9 foot alligator at Kiawah Island. Cynthia had come to do the nails of her friend Barbara who lives on Kiawah and Barbara told the authorities that she believed her friend may have been inebriated when she arrived for the visit. "She arrived with a glass of wine in her hand and was very talkative and acting strange, unlike how she normally behaves at the salon".
They were on Barbara's back porch when Cynthia noticed the gator lying by the edge of a pond. She took her phone out and said she wanted to get a picture of it. She then walked down to the edge of the pond and Barbara yelled at her to move back. She said a deer had been snatched from that same spot by a gator very recently. Cynthia responded "I don't look like no deer" and laughed.
That's when it attacked. It grabbed her by her leg and started dragging her into the water. Barbara's husband came running out of the house and a neighbor named Michael Clawson heard the screaming and came to help as well. Clawson threw a rope to Cynthia to try and drag her from the gators clutch. She was standing in about waist deep water. According to the police report "Cynthia stated in a very calm voice, ‘I guess I won’t do this again.’”
And with that the gator launched into his death roll dragging her out into the depths. Police arrived very quickly along with EMT's but the pond was still for almost 15 minutes before the gator came up with Cynthia still in his grasp. A deputy shot the gator in the head but of course it was too late for Cynthia. The autopsy says she had sever wounds to her left leg but the cause of death is accidental drowning.