Crocodile Lunges at Boat Carrying Victim of Attack

A small boat carrying remains believed to be those of a Colorado woman killed by a crocodile was attacked by another crocodile that lunged four feet out of the water and snapped at the body bag, officials said Wednesday.

The boat attack came as police gave the first detailed account of Sunday’s grisly crocodile killing of Fay Ginger Meadows, 24, of Snowmass Village, Colo., who was attacked at the spectacular Kings Cascade Waterfall in northwestern Australia.

Chief Inspector Arnold Davies of the regional police station in the port of Broome said that remains believed those of the woman were found Tuesday afternoon at the edge of the Prince Regent River near a cluster of mangroves.

He said the remains were put inside a body bag, which was placed at the front of a 23-foot rescue boat.

“After traveling 15 kilometers (9 miles) up to the mouth of the river, a large crocodile leapt out of the water about four feet and snapped the end of the body bag, trying to tear it,” the official said.

Crew Feared Another Attack

Davies said the crocodile then disappeared, but the crew of the boat, fearing another attack, turned back and anchored in the St. George Basin until a larger Customs Department vessel could take charge of the remains for the trip to Broome.

Meadows’ estranged husband, Dwayne McCaulley, 27, arrived in Broome on Wednesday to identify the remains.

Giving the first detailed account of Sunday’s attack, Davies said Meadows and another young woman were frolicking in waist-deep water on a ledge under the Kings Cascade Waterfalls.

The skipper of the luxury yacht Lady G, who was standing on a slope of the falls, “saw the crocodile approaching them and shouted out a warning to the women,” Davies said.

“One of the women threw a shoe at the crocodile and the croc disappeared under the water.

“Ginger tried to swim to safety, but the crocodile resurfaced and grabbed her. It took her down and then resurfaced with her in its jaws, and then took her down again,” Davies said.

He said he was still investigating why the skipper allowed the women to go swimming at the falls, 1,659 miles northeast of Perth, because it is a known haunt of the man-eating crocodiles.