Daughter of woman eaten by alligator slams vile accusations she taunted beast
Sabrina Peckham lived a difficult life before she was killed last week by a giant, nearly 14-foot alligator. But despite her struggles, her daughter says she "wasn't a bad person."
Peckham was homeless, living on the streets in Pinellas County, Florida, near the city of Largo about 15 miles northwest of Saint Petersburg. She had been busted a few times for trespassing as she scoured the area for safe places to sleep.
On Friday, the authorities were called to investigate a massive reptile which reportedly had human remains in its maw. They found the beast and euthanised it, later determining that the body inside of it was Peckham's.
Sabrina Peckham enjoyed spending time with her daughter Breauna and her grandchildren (Breauna Dorris)
Sabrina Peckham was mauled to death by a massive alligator (Facebook)The beast ripped her life away from her as she strolled either to or from the camp she had been sleeping at, her daughter Breauna Dorris said in an exclusive interview with The Mirror US. She said the authorities and the media have tried to paint the picture of her mother's guilt, implicating her for inciting the gator attack and calling it her fault.
"She was really just trying to survive," Dorris said. “I don’t believe my mother to be somebody that would taunt an alligator. She’s a Florida native, so she’s well aware of what they can do to somebody. Being that she’s not living or sleeping too far from the area, I doubt the last thing that she wanted was a pissed-off alligator.”
Alligator spotted with jaws taped shut and struggling before being rescued
She added that most people's advice about alligators is to simply leave them alone — that if you don't bother them, they won't bother you. But she said that isn't always the case.
Blood splatters the area around where the authorities found the massive alligator last week (Today)"The reality of it is that it is a wild animal, and if it does get hungry... You know," she said. "It doesn’t just happen to homeless people. This can happen to anybody."
Peckham suffered from drug addictions and the lifestyle and struggles that result from them — drugs landed her on the street. But even so, Dorris said her mother went out of her way to be "kind to everybody" and to be the best mother and grandmother she could be despite her circumstances.
"Even though she was homeless, it didn't matter. She would help whoever needed help," Dorris said. "If she saw somebody struggling at the supermarket, like an older person, she would stop and help them load their groceries into their car."
Sabrina Peckham was 'kind to everybody' and loved helping others (Breauna Dorris)
Peckham would help care for her grandchildren at times and loved spending time with them (Breauna Dorris)She said she always tried to "remain a point of contact" for her mother, who lived close by and would "come by quite often" to help with house chores or to watch her two young grandchildren, Dorris' 1-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.
"I would do my best to provide what I could for her — if she needed food or she needed dry clothes or toiletries or within reason what I could give to her at the time," Dorris said.
She added that she felt her mother was "trying to repay" the kindnesses by helping around the house and with her kids. "I always told her, 'Momma, I don't need anything from you. I'm just doing it because you're my mom,'" she said.
Because of her past, however, Dorris refused to provide her mother a home with her and her family, but nevertheless, she said she would do what she could.
The gator was loaded up onto a truck and killed (Today)"I’m the only person local enough to her within distance that she could count on," Dorris explained. "If she needed a couple of dollars, or she needed a ride, or she needed food, or she needed clothes or anything like that, she knew that she could come to me and tell me that and that I would be there to help her."
She emphasised that the rest of the family did care, they just live too far away to be of any immediate assistance — and, in some ways, they had also become a bit burnt out. Peckham's mother lives at least an hour away, and her father lives around two-and-a-half, she added.
Woman, 85, dragged to death by 11ft alligator as she walked her dog near pond
“Being that she was homeless, she didn’t have a phone or a way to contact people, so she wasn’t able to reach out or just to walk down the street to these other family members," Dorris said. "But they absolutely still loved and cared about her. Our whole family is in devastation right now knowing what happened to her."
Authorities and bystanders gather around the scene where the giant alligator was found holding Sabrina (WFLA)And they had tried to help her in the past but stopped after a while because what they were doing "didn't end up working out," she said. Helping her had become draining after a while. Yet they still loved her.
Dorris said the only person ultimately responsible for her mother's struggles was her mother herself. "She made her choices, and that resulted in her going down the wrong path and her doing things that she wasn't supposed to be doing. But she knew that, and she held herself accountable for it, and she knew that the only person that could help her was herself."
Peckham really did try until her dying day, Dorris said, and she wants people to remember her mother for the good she did and tried to do and not just her struggles.
"I want people to know that she wasn’t a bad person and that she didn’t deserve what happened to her," she said. "It’s unexpected and tragic, and it’s a hard way to pass. I also just want to bring awareness," she added. “Be diligent, and be aware of your surroundings, because this tragic event, it could have been anybody.”
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
