Lane Thomas Graves’ parents say they’re not going to sue Disney over the alligator attack that killed him.
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“Melissa and I are broken”, Matt Graves said in the statement. “We will forever struggle to comprehend why this happened to our sweet baby, Lane”, Matt and Melissa Graves said in a statement Wednesday.
Instead they plan to open the Lane Thomas Foundation “to keep his spirit alive”.
For now, the Graves “will exclusively be focused on the future health of our family”, according to the statement. They asked for continued privacy.
Law enforcement officers search the Seven Seas Lagoon outside Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Wednesday, June 15, 2016, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., after a two-year-old toddler was dragged into the lake by an alligator. The tragedy garnered global headlines and a voracious backlash against Disney for not warning guests about the dangers of predators in the waters.
After Lane’s death, many tourists came forward with stories of their own alligator sightings at Disney.
His body was found the next day. In 2015, David Hiden, a San Diego attorney, notified a Disney World manager that an alligator had “rapidly” come after his son, who was wading in the lagoon of the Coronado Springs Resort, CBS News reported.
But attacks on the property are nearly unheard of: The last one was in 1986, when an alligator grabbed an 8-year-old boy between its teeth at Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness, according to the Orlando Sentinel archives. Disney ended up installing warning signs. “There are alligators and snakes in the area”. Do not feed the wildlife’.
After fending off the creature snapping at him, the distraught father said he was unable to pry his son from the other alligator’s jaws before it disappeared below the surface of the water. An autopsy shows Graves drowned and suffered traumatic injuries.
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Walt Disney World shut down all of its Florida resort beaches and marinas immediately after the attack out of precaution.
