Robin Jean Puryear id as Texas woman found in jaws of alligator at Clear Lake bayou near Houston last month as neighbors express shock at how she met her fate. Questions continue to surround nature of woman’s death.
A Texas woman who was found eaten by an alligator last month has been identified as a trust fund divorcee mother of two, who lived with her new partner near a Houston bayou where her body was found in the jaws of the alligator.
The medical examiner in Houston confirmed the deceased woman as 63-year-old Clear Lake woman, Robin Jean Puryear the dailymail reported.
Her exact cause of death has not yet been made public by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
Found in jaws of alligator less than a mile from home
To date it remained unclear if the woman was killed by the predator or if her remains were found by the reptile after she died.
Puryear had been reported missing by her partner on May 27 and the gator was spotted less than 12 hours later at around 8:40am on May 28, police stated.
The officer who discovered the human remains in the gator’s mouth shot the creature dead to prevent it from eating the remainder of her body, which was then recovered by a dive team from the bayou.
Puryear was the mother to a son in 30s and lived in an area of Houston called Clear Lake.
Her house is less than a mile from where her body was found in the clutches of the predator near Horsepen Bayou.
Deceased woman’s life remembered
Described as ‘petite and sweet’ by neighbors, Puryear stood just 5’2″ tall and weighed about 125 pounds.
Puryear had lived at the Clear Lake home since 1991, according to public records, which was purchased alongside her ex-husband, Mark. The Puryears divorced in 2011.
An obituary described Puryear as having worked for over 40 years at Besco and Bay Electric as the main bookkeeper and manager. ‘Upon Mark’s passing she took on all aspects of running a successful company. She treated all of her employees fairly and made sure upon retirement and sale of the company her employees had a place with the new owners,’ the obit stated.
Residents in the neighborhood said she would ‘keep to herself,’ and expressed disbelief over how her body was found.
‘It’s just a terrible situation and there is just lots of speculation,’ a neighbor told the dailymail.
‘Maybe this points towards something that people are not even thinking about.’
She explained alligators are a common sight in that neighborhood, and all the residents are well aware they are in the water and often wander the banks of the bayou.
When Puryear’s former spouse died years after the divorce, she and her son inherited part of her ex-husband’s company.
She appears to have lived off a trust fund related to the former spouse’s electrical business.
Puryear had three driving while intoxicated arrests on her record from 1987, 1999, 2013, the dailymail stated citing records.
In more recent years, neighbors said the retiree lived with a man they knew as her husband – but there are no publicly available records of a second marriage.
Since her death, neighbors believe Puryear’s partner has abandoned the home, with only her adult son stopping by from time to time. The partner declined to return calls for comment.
As questions about Puryear’s death remain unanswered, she will be laid to rest on Thursday at Crowder Funeral Home in League City, according to an online obituary.
Meanwhile, her former brother-in-law Ronald Puryear could hardly believe how her remains ended up being eaten by an alligator.
‘This is really unbelievable. This sounds like a fantasy,’ Ronald told the dailymail, adding that he hadn’t spoken to her or her son in over 10 years due to a family estrangement.
‘We had a family disagreement, and the family spilt up. That’s about all I feel comfortable saying.’
