LARGO, Fla. — The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has released a report about a homeless Pinellas County homeless who was killed by a large alligator near Largo last September, and determined the attack did not happen at her campsite.

According to the report, it’s unknown exactly where and when the victim, Sabrina Peckham, 41, came into contact with the gator. Her body did not show any signs of being in the water or alligator for a prolonged period of time. Several body parts were found inside the gator during the animal's necropsy.

Jamarcus Bullard, 21, spotted Peckham’s body in the jaws of the 13 foot, 9.75 inch gator as he was walking past the canal on Sept. 22, and he notified authorities. Peckham was last seen by family members the previous afternoon.

She had been living in the brush near McKay Creek at the time, and FWC investigator Rich Schefano determined the deadly attack did not happen there.

“Up over here is the camp where her I.D. was found,” he said on body camera video. “There doesn’t appear to be any signs of an alligator having come up in here.”

Schefano wanted to figure out why such a large gator was hanging out in a small creek. The FWC investigator discovered the creek was wider and deeper than expected, and that it also connected to nearby lakes.

“Now, it actually makes sense that there was a big gator where she was,” said Schefano. “There’s big gators in between, and this canal’s actually a lot bigger than I thought it was.”

McKay Creek connects to Taylor Lake to the north, where a gator killed man diving for frisbees in 2022, and Ridgecrest Lake to the south. Very large alligators had been recently seen in both Ridgecrest and Taylor Lakes, according to the report.

Ridgecrest Lake park ranger Karl Schoetker said he had seen a large gator matching the description of the man-eater. Taylor Lake park ranger Ponce Collins said he regularly sees large alligators in the southern part of the lake. Collins also said he saw Peckham walking along the canal about a week prior to the deadly attack.

On his body cam video, Schefano noted Taylor Lake was “out of water” at the time “for some kind of project.” Pinellas County public works had mostly drained the lake for a maintenance project, according to our partners at the Tampa Bay Times. Nearby residents believed the project many have funneled the gators into the canal.

FWC determined alligators use McKay Creek to travel between the two lakes. It was noted in the report that "both lakes are connected to the incident location by an unobstructed canal."  Pinellas County has since put up fencing and signs to keep people away from the canal.

According to FWC records, it’s rare for a gator to kill a human. Since the early 1970s, only three people have been killed by an alligator in Pinellas County, which includes Peckham.