A Costa Rican schoolboy named Julio Otero Fernandez was visiting the Matina River when he was dragged under water and devoured by a crocodile, according to The New York Post.
The news report stated that the young victim was decapitated by the reptile, before being dragged to the depths of the Matina River in the city of Limon on October 30, never to be seen alive again. Then on Saturday, 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 beast's stomach, they discovered inside strands of hair and bone fragments believed to belong to Julio.
The 8-year-old was killed while spending time with his parents, four siblings, and other relatives during a fishing trip. At around 2 pm on October 30, Julio was standing in knee-deep water in the river when the large crocodile lunged at him.
"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 Fernandez Flores, helplessly looked on as their son was being savaged by the reptile.
Recalling the painful incident, Mr Otero told The New York Post, "The hardest thing for my wife was seeing the crocodile float away with my son's body."
According to the American weekly online news magazine Newsweek, Tatiana Diaz, regional director of the Limon Red Cross, has tried to explain the attack.
"One hypothesis is that the animal took the child to the burrow or cave, and there are burrows and caves, but we don't know which one of them it is. We have tried to cover and visualize some, we have implemented a hook with a strip to see if it pulls something, but to no avail.
"Since we don't know which cave it is, or which crocodile because there are several, it's very difficult to focus on a single point."
"We know that there are crocodiles and burrows, but we don't have a notion or a pattern to work on."
