[tsubaki]

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Police in Savannah say they have killed an eight-foot alligator responsible for the death of an 83-year-old Canadian woman -- said to be the first fatal gator attack in Georgia in more than 25 years.

A spokesman for Savannah-Chatham County police said yesterday that an autopsy determined Gwen Williams died from blood loss from "wounds consistent with those of an alligator attack."

Williams was found in a pond Saturday about 500 feet from the home she was house-sitting for relatives on Skidaway Island in east Savannah. Police Sergeant Mike Wilson says she was from Canada, but he did not know which city.

A couple riding in a golf cart spotted Williams' body. Police determined she had been dead since Friday evening.

The Department of Natural Resources has sent a trapper to Skidaway Island to hunt the alligator. Police say the animal was killed late last night, and they have evidence showing it is the gator that killed Williams.

A senior wildlife biologist for the Georgia DNR -- Jim Simmons -- says that before Williams' death, only eight known alligator attacks occurred in Georgia since 1980. Simmons says none was fatal.