An accused burglar is dead after Brevard County deputies said he hid in a pond while on the run and was killed by an 11-foot-long alligator.
Matthew Riggins, 22, of Palm Bay was reported missing Nov. 13. His body was found 10 days later floating in a pond near Latan Court and Barefoot Circle, in Barefoot Bay. Investigators said it had the makings of a gator attack.
Shortly before Riggins was reported missing, he called his girlfriend and told her he'd be in the area breaking into homes, deputies said.
"He was going to do burglaries in the Barefoot Bay area with another individual," said Maj. Tod Goodyear, with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office dive team encountered the same gator while recovering the man's body, and the animal had to be euthanized by a trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Inside the gator's stomach, the medical examiner found proof of how Riggins was killed.
