Disturbing new footage has emerged showing the enormous crocodile believed to have killed a 28-year-old man in Puerto Vallarta, as a visiting couple from California witnessed the terrifying scene unfold nearby.
The grainy video, filmed at night near the Marriott Puerto Vallarta Resort & Spa, shows the large reptile with its jaws open in the area following the fatal attack.
According to Jalisco state police, the incident occurred around 6:30 p.m. Friday at Marina Vallarta Beach. Authorities identified the victim only as a 28-year-old man from Mexico who had traveled to the resort city for work.
His body was found early Saturday morning, roughly 12 hours after he disappeared in the water.
Jamie Yetter, her fiancé Chris Bury and her teenage daughter were staying at the hotel and spending time by the pool when screams from the beach shattered the calm.
“We thought we saw a guy stuck in a rip current, so Chris took off down to the water, and I ran right after him,” Yetter said.
Bury rushed toward the shoreline and climbed into a kayak, despite there being no paddles, in an urgent attempt to reach the man.
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“There were no oars. There was really nothing at the beach at all to help. We were just scrambling, trying to do what we could,” Bury said.
“I was on the kayak right when he got pulled under.”
Despite the Orange County family’s efforts, they were unable to save the victim.
“They didn’t tell anyone it was dangerous,” Yetter told Surfer.com.
She explained signs near the beach warned of jellyfish, stingrays and crocodiles in the water, but her family initially mistook the crocodile symbol for an iguana.
“They didn’t tell us we shouldn’t go swimming. Even the next morning, I went down to the ocean. I assumed the beach would be closed. The beach wasn’t closed. There were no no-swimming signs,” Yetter added.
By Saturday morning, beachgoers had returned to the same stretch of shoreline, with families once again swimming in the water.
