South Africa: Police find hotel manager in 5-meter crocodile

Komatiport (South Africa) – The police searched for the missing hotel manager Gabriel Batista for a week. He disappeared after his car broke down on a bridge. Now his remains have been found – in an almost 5 meter long crocodile.

At the end of April, Gabriel Batista, owner of a hotel and sports bar, wanted to cross a low-water bridge near the town of Komatiport in South Africa with his Ford Ranger. But the Komati River had flooded the structure and the strong current pushed the car against the rocks. The car was later found empty. Police suspected that Batista tried to escape from the vehicle and was swept away by the river. He was considered missing.

Crocodile eats hotel manager

Authorities searched the area. Police diving team commander, Captain Johan “Pottie” Potgieter: “From a drone, we observed several crocodiles on an island 60 meters from the bridge and identified one particular crocodile that we were 100 percent confident had eaten the man.”

It didn’t move, stayed out of the water, and had a massively full belly, as if it had recently eaten. The one that weighs 500 kilograms Tier was shot by a sniper and rescued by helicopter. To do this, Potgieter lowered himself down to the carcass using a harness: “The rope basically let me down directly onto the crocodile’s snout. So I was kind of hoping that it really was completely dead.”

Dead animal had six pairs of shoes in its stomach

During the examination, investigators cut open the stomach and made a grisly discovery: two human arms and half a ribcage lay in the crocodile’s stomach. There was also a ring on one hand that probably belonged to Batista. The DNA comparison is still ongoing.

Apparently the police stopped a man-eater: six pairs of shoes were also found inside the crocodile – none of which belong to the hotel manager. The authorities are now checking missing person reports to identify possible additional victims The tier attack to identify. A spokesman for the hotel said: “Gabriel was a wonderful person and a family man, married with many children. He spent a lot of time here and the guests loved him.” The family does not want to comment until the results of the DNA analysis are available.