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by Ted Scouten
NORTH MIAMI BEACH (CBS4/AP) ― Florida has had only 17 confirmed fatal alligator attacks in the last 58 years, but in the less than a week, there have been three - keeping alligator trappers with their hands full.

The bodies of two women were found Sunday some 130 miles apart. Annemarie Campbell, 23, of Paris, Tenn., was attacked while snorkeling in a secluded recreation area near Lake George, said state wildlife spokeswoman Kat Kelley. The lake is about 50 miles southeast of Gainesville.

Todd Hardwick, of the nuisance control company Pesky Critters, has been flooded with calls. He said trappers like him are prioritizing the calls for larger gators and gators that have lost their fear of humans. In North Miami Beach Hardwick spend the day catching a large one that had been appearing in the back yards of a neighborhood in North Miami Beach.


"The people she was staying with came around and found her inside the gator's mouth," said Marion County Fire-Rescue Capt. Joe Amigliore.

By poking the alligator's eyes and trying to open its jaws, the men were able to free Campbell's body, but she was dead when they found her, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.

Her stepfather, who had tried to help her, was treated on the scene for a hand injury.

Authorities estimate the animal was 7 to 9 feet long.

In Pinellas County, the body of another woman apparently killed by an alligator was found in a canal 20 miles north of St. Petersburg, authorities said.

Judy W. Cooper's body had been in the water for about three days, authorities said.

The 43-year-old Dunedin woman suffered animal bites that were consistent with an alligator, which "did play some part in the victim's death," according to a preliminary autopsy. The cause of death was pending and the medical examiner's final report will not be released for at least four weeks, the sheriff's office said.

It was not immediately known why Cooper was in the area where wildlife officials said alligators are frequently spotted.

Cooper's family had not heard from her for about three months and she had a history of drug abuse, her sister, Dannette Goodrich, told The Orlando Sentinel.

Gary Goodrich, Cooper's brother-in-law, told the newspaper that officials said her purse was found near the water and drugs may have played a factor.

Authorities were baiting traps in their searches for both gators Sunday.

On Wednesday, construction workers found the dismembered body of Florida Atlantic University student, Yovy Suarez Jimenez, 28, in a Sunrise canal.
A medical examiner concluded that the aspiring model was attacked near the canal bank and dragged into the water.

Wildlife officers captured a 9-foot, 6-inch alligator in Sunrise on Saturday that they believe fatally attacked Jimenez while she was out jogging. During a necropsy, officials say they found two human arms in the gator's belly.

Suarez's death was the 18th confirmed fatal alligator attack in Florida since 1948. Nine other previous deaths are unconfirmed, mainly because it was not clear whether the person was already dead when the alligator attacked.

What provoked the attacks in three separate Florida counties was unknown, but state wildlife officials said alligators are generally on the move looking for mates and food this time of year.

"As the weather heats up, the alligators' metabolism increases and they have to eat more," Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Willie Puz said Sunday. "They might be moving more, but that just shouldn't mean increased alligator attacks."

Florida residents are warned not to swim in heavily vegetated areas, feed wildlife or walk pets near the water, especially between dusk and dawn when gators are more active, Morse said.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)