Florida wildlife authorities have released a new report on a vicious May alligator attack that took the life of a Michigan woman. 

Cynthia Diekema, 61, was killed while canoeing with her husband near Lake Kissimmee State Park when they unknowingly approached an 11-foot, four-inch alligator lurking beneath the surface, a report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) says, according to KETV. 

FWC said that the alligator thrashed underneath the canoe, causing the pair to be thrown into the water. 

ALLIGATOR INJURES GIRL SWIMMING IN POPULAR SUMMER STATE PARK DESTINATION

“The victim was immediately bitten on the torso, and efforts by her husband to assist her were unsuccessful,” according to the report. “The alligator performed a death roll and swam away with the victim.”

FWC alligator trappers later caught the alligator. 

Amid the release of the report, FWC announced a new partnership with GatorWise, described as “a new public awareness campaign that aims to promote realistic public perceptions about alligators and assist the public in taking appropriate actions to minimize conflict,” in order to help Floridians navigate the waters during the summer, when alligator attacks become more common. 

“Florida has seen tremendous population growth in recent years, with many people living or recreating near water,” Matthew Nichols, FWC alligator management program coordinator, said of the partnership. “Because alligators can be found in nearly any water in Florida, it’s safest to always assume they’re present. GatorWise provides consistent, science-based information from across the Southeast to help people safely share the landscape with these important animals.”

An alligator just under the surface of the water during an airboat tour of the Florida Everglades on Feb. 6, 2022. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

FLORIDA MOTORCYCLISTS INJURED AFTER HITTING SIX-FOOT ALLIGATOR ON HIGHWAY

According to the wildlife authority, there are an estimated 1.3 million alligators in Florida. FWC’s 2025 statistics show that there have been two “major” alligator bites through May, one of them being fatal. There have been no “minor” bites this year. 

Last year, there were a total of 11 bites, nine considered major and two minor, with no fatalities. In 2023, there were 23 alligator bites, 18 major and five minor, with two fatalities. 

The GatorWise website provides basic instructions, like assuming alligators are present when near the water, not feeding alligators, not disposing of fish or food scraps in the water, not attempting to pick up an alligator, and ensuring pets aren’t wandering shorelines off-leash. 

An alligator populates the Wakodahatchee Wetlands on June 27, 2022, in Delray Beach, Florida. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

“Alligators are native to many wetlands of the southeastern United States, making them critical to the health and balance of these ecosystems,” the site says. “Minimizing conflicts with people while maintaining necessary protections from overharvest is crucial to keeping alligator populations stable within their range.”

“To do that we must Educate people about alligators, while increasing Respect for these animals and their natural behaviors, which will allow for alligators and humans to Coexist.”

Fox News Digital reached out to FWC. 

A judge ordered Monday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia will remain behind bars following a request from his attorneys, who believed he could face possible deportation again before his human smuggling trial begins, according to the Associated Press. 

However, top Trump administration officials maintained last week that Kilmar Abrego Garcia will continue to go through the legal system in the United States before he is deported again, as the administration maintains he will not walk free in the U.S.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers also successfully asked the judge last Friday to keep him behind bars to avoid any possibility of an immediate deportation, according to NewsNation.  

Still, the plan is to try Abrego Garcia in the U.S. on the Tennessee-based human smuggling charges before deporting him, according to the Department of Justice. And if he is convicted, the White House says he will spend time behind bars in the U.S. before being deported.

JUDGE SETS STRICT CONDITIONS FOR ABREGO GARCIA’S RELEASE AS TRUMP OFFICIALS PURSUE CASE AGAINST HIM

“This defendant has been charged with horrific crimes including trafficking children and will not walk free in our country again,” DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin told Fox News Digital in an email.

The White House further clarified the Executive Branch’s stance following an Associated Press report on the comments from federal prosecutors about possibly deporting him to a third country sooner. 

“This is fake news. Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him. He will face the full force of the American justice system – including serving time in American prison for the crimes he’s committed,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson said in an X post.

RETURNED SALVADORAN MIGRANT KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA ARRAIGNED ON FEDERAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING CHARGES IN TENNESSEE

Chris Van Hollen speaks to Kilmar Garcia (Reuters)

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the 29-year-old will not be freed in the U.S. at any point.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a dangerous criminal illegal alien. We have said it for months and it remains true to this day: he will never go free on American soil,” she wrote.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE IMMIGRATION COVERAGE

Abrego Garcia, who was living in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador amid accusations of being an MS-13 gang member, as it is a designated foreign terrorist organization. He then spent time detained at the country’s terrorism confinement center. While detained in the country, it sparked a political firestorm in which Democrats raised concerns about due process, with Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-M.D., even meeting with him in the Central American nation.

During his El Salvador detainment, past records alleging domestic abuse surfaced, as well as reports that he allegedly had taken part in human smuggling, which ultimately led to the federal charges brought forth earlier this month that resulted in his return to American custody.

DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE RETURN OF SUSPECTED HUMAN TRAFFICKER KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA

This courtroom sketch depicts Kilmar Abrego Garcia sitting in court during his detention hearing on Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. Federal prosecutors on Thursday said that if Abrego-Garcia is released, the government’s plan is to take him into ICE custody and begin removal proceedings to a “third country.” (Diego Fishburn via AP)

“Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time. “A grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned a sealed indictment charging him with alien smuggling and conspiracy.”

However, critics blasted the charges as a political move.

“After weeks of the Trump administration saying they either couldn’t or wouldn’t return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US, the timing of these charges are clearly designed to cover up their negligence and the fact that the Supreme Court unanimously called them out on the egregious ways they are ignoring due process,” the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition said in a statement at the time. “Still, Mr. Abrego Garcia will now be able to have his day in court, which The Constitution guarantees for everyone in our country regardless of citizenship.” 

Southern states banded together Thursday to establish their own accrediting body in higher education in order to “upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels,” according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee formed the Commission for Public Higher Education, a consortium of six public universities offering a new accreditation model.

The Commission will create a “first-of-its-kind accreditation model for public higher education institutions that will offer high-quality, efficient services prioritizing academic excellence, student outcomes and achievement.”

DeSantis said at a press conference at Florida Atlantic University that there was a need for “alternative accreditation.”

FLORIDA STANDS UP AGAINST WOKE MIND VIRUS AND REJECTS LEFTIST UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT WHO PROMISED ‘DEI 2.0’

DeSantis said that the commission will “upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels, and it will provide institutions with an alternative that focuses on student achievement, rather than the ideological fads that have so permeated those accrediting bodies over the years.”

He explained further that the accreditation process affects undergraduate schools as well as law and medical schools. He said that accrediting bodies were trying to deny credentials to Florida institutions that prohibited diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming on their campuses.

“The accreditors are telling them they have to do these things. So, when we said, ‘No DEI,’ the accreditors are telling these universities, ‘No, no, no, you’re not going to get accredited unless you do DEI.’ Who the heck are they to say what our universities have to do? They’re telling them they can’t follow state law? Are you kidding me? Nobody elected them to make that judgment at all. 

“What we’ve seen develop is an accreditation cartel and the accreditors by-and-large are all singing from the same sheet of music and it’s not what the state of Florida wants to see reflected in its universities in many different respects.”

He added that the process “requires approval” from the current Trump administration’s U.S. Department of Education and that the accreditation overhaul agenda would not have passed under the Biden administration. 

“They believe in overhauling this accreditation process. They want to have new blood in the system. They want to have competing accreditors,” DeSantis said about the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on accountability and reform of the accreditation process in higher education in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (AP NEWSROOM)

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA PRESIDENTIAL PICK REJECTED BY STATE BOARD OF GOVERNORS OVER PAST DEI SUPPORT

When reached for comment, a Department of Education spokesperson pointed Fox News Digital to President Donald Trump’s executive order issued in April that called for accountability and reform to the accreditation process in higher education after past accrediting bodies “abused their enormous authority.” 

The Executive Order cited accredited institutions offering “undergraduate and graduate programs with a negative return on investment” and compelling the “adoption of discriminatory ideology, rather than on student outcomes” in order to access federal aid.

DeSantis said the members of the new accrediting body have been working with the Department of Education to expedite the process of acquiring approval from the federal government.

“We need these things approved and implemented during President Trump’s term of office, because the reality is, if it doesn’t get approved and stick during that time, you can have a president come in next and potentially revoke it, and they could probably do that very quickly,” DeSantis said.

Southern states banded together to establish their own accrediting body in higher education in order to “upend the monopoly of the woke accreditation cartels,” according to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Fox News Digital )

DeSantis predicted that more conservative states in the South will seek to gain accreditation from the new body.

A Florida education official sent Fox News Digital the following statement:

“I am proud to be joined by leaders of five other public university systems to establish an accreditor that will focus on ensuring institutions provide high-quality, high-value programs, use student data to drive decisions, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the process,” Chancellor Ray Rodrigues of the State University System of Florida said.