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Medical examiner: Largo man drowns following alligator attack

Sean McGuinness, 47, was known for selling Frisbees back to people after fishing them from Taylor Lake.

LARGO, Fla. — The man whose body was missing several limbs when he was recovered from Taylor Lake died by drowning after being attacked by an alligator, the medical examiner confirmed.

Sean McGuinness entered the water on May 31 at John S. Taylor Park, located at 1100 8th Ave. SW. in Largo, looking for Frisbees near a course before he died, the Largo Police Department said in an earlier statement.

Pinellas County Associate Medical Examiner Wayne Kurz wrote the 47-year-old's cause of death was drowning, with blunt and sharp force injuries as contributory conditions. His head, neck and torso also experienced traumatic injuries.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had said McGuinness was bitten by a gator, which was backed up by the medical examiner.

Citing park management, FWC officers said McGuinness was known to frequent the park and enter the lake with disregard to the "no swimming" signs. He sold discs back to people within the park where there was a disc golf course. 

"There are stores around here that will give you $5 a piece for those frisbees or the discs. He could go in the pond and get 20 or 30 of them out in 30 or 40 minutes," his friend, Ryan McKinley, earlier told 10 Tampa Bay. "He would just walk out there, move his feet around, and they would just pop up. They're just $5 bills to him, so that's how he lived.

McKinley said McGuinness had recently been struggling with epilepsy and having several seizures a day. McGuinness should be remembered as someone with a kind soul, he continued.

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