8-Year-Old Boy Mauled, Beheaded By Crocodile In Front Of Parents

An 8-year-old boy was attacked and mauled to death by a massive crocodile in front of his family in Costa Rica.

The young victim, 8-year-old Julio Otero Fernández, was playing in the Matina River in the city of Limón in Costa Rica, with his parents, four siblings, and other relatives during a fishing trip on Oct. 30. During the trip, while Julio was standing in knee-deep water in the river, a large crocodile lunged at him, attacked him and dragged him to the depths of the river, never to be seen alive again, New York Post reported.

“It shook him (the child) and ripped off his little head,” an eyewitness described the brutal attack. “Then it grabbed him again and dragged him under.”

Julio’s parents, Don Julio Otero and Margini Fernández Flores, helplessly looked on as their son was brutally attacked by the crocodile.

“The hardest thing for my wife was seeing the crocodile float away with my son’s body,” Otero said.

Otero said that the crocodile resurfaced more than an hour later, still holding his child’s body in its jaws. Even though police officers responded to the scene, they refused to shoot the animal, saying they did not have the “authority” to open fire, Local 12 reported.

“For my part, I feel abandoned by the authorities,” Otero said. “An animal is worth more than a human being, that’s what I’ve felt.”

On Saturday, Nov. 26, nearly a month after the child’s gruesome death, an unidentified hunter reportedly shot and killed a crocodile in the area. When the locals cut open the crocodile's stomach, they discovered strands of hair and bone fragments believed to belong to Julio inside the crocodile's stomach. Following the discovery, the human remains were handed over to the local authorities for DNA testing.

The victim's parents relocated their family to Costa Rica from their native Nicaragua four years ago to work on a banana plantation. After their son's death, they are now planning to move back home with their four surviving kids, between the ages of 3 and 16, to keep them safe from crocodiles.

“I will not stay here because they protect these animals and they are capable of leaving the river to attack more people,” Flores, Julio’s mom, said.