Crocodile traps two teens using the dead body of their friend for 22 hours | World | News
Brett Mann, 22, lost his life to a 13-foot crocodile (Image: Press Association)
A 22-year-old Australian man was killed by a crocodile after the beast seized him by the shoulders and dragged him beneath the surface. But the nightmare was far from over.
Two of the man’s friends, both 19, were left stranded in a tree for 22 hours as they made their desperate bid to escape the same fate. As they clung on the saltwater crocodile chillingly ‘showed off’ their friend’s mangled body to them from the rising floodwaters below.
In December 2003, Brett Mann tragically lost his life at the age of 22 in the Finniss River in Australia’s Northern Territory, 50 miles south-west of Darwin. Mann fell victim to the 13-foot (four metres) long crocodile after the three friends had ventured out quad-biking along a muddy trail near an abandoned tin mine beside the river, before stopping at the water’s edge for a swim.
Mann was killed by the so-called ‘saltie’ — the colloquial term for saltwater crocodiles in Australia — and the deadly predator horrifyingly kept his body clenched in its jaws, ‘parading’ its victim in full view of his two terrified friends watching from a nearby tree. The pair had scrambled to the top in a frantic attempt to avoid suffering the same dreadful fate as their companion.
Shaun Blowers and Ashley McGough, both 19, described their harrowing experience as they watched their friend fall victim to the fearsome predator. Blowers revealed the crocodile had also tried to attack them, but the teenage pair managed to clamber up a tree in the swollen waterway and discovered a means to escape almost certain death by remaining in its branches. Both teenagers were located by a police search team 22 hours afterwards, reports the Irish Mirror.
The horror ordeal took the life of 22-year-old Brett Mann (Image: Press Association/Northern Territory Police)
In a statement issued at the time, Blowers detailed how Mann had “lost his footing and got swept away”, explaining: “Brett went out just a little bit further, it was a real sandy bank and just lost his footing and got swept away.
“We both jumped in and swam after him and we got in front of him and were leading him back to the bank. I went past the croc, I didn’t see it. Ashley screamed out ‘croc, croc’. We just swam to the nearest tree and straight up we went.
“We were looking around for Brett (but) didn’t hear a thing, didn’t hear a scream, no splashing or anything.”
As it transpired, the crocodile had seized Mann by the shoulders and pulled him beneath the surface – a hunting method employed by saltwater crocodiles to suffocate their victims.
Mann said: “Two minutes later the croc brought Brett to the surface and pretty much showed him off to us and off he swam. Five minutes later he was back stalking the tree around us. He just hung around us all night and pretty much all the next morning.”
Two teens managed to escape death in a terrifying crocodile incident that took their friend’s life (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Blowers and McGough were eventually airlifted from the area by rescue services via helicopter and transported to Darwin, where they received treatment for exposure and shock.
The Guardian reports Northern Territory police spokesman John McCourt saying: “During the evening it was so dark they couldn’t see themselves. They wouldn’t have had any idea whether the waters would rise or fall. If they rose they’d probably have been done for.”
Blowers’ father, Greg, told The Guardian that 22-year-old Mann was “the best bloke I’ve ever known”. He told the publication at the time: “I just hope the rangers can find it and get our old mate Brett back, and put a bullet in its head.
“I’m pretty grateful I’m going to have a full family for Christmas. I think I probably appreciate that a hell of a lot more than I used to.”
Australia’s Northern Territory is home to 100,000 saltwater crocodiles (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Despite an extensive search by authorities for Mann’s remains, it is understood they were never recovered. Later that same month in December 2003, the BBC reported that the man-eating crocodile was believed to have been shot dead by wildlife rangers, in accordance with police reports.
According to the most recent figures, a staggering 100,000 saltwater crocodiles — more than anywhere else on the planet — are thought to roam Australia’s Northern Territory. They remain a protected species in Australia, though their numbers have surged dramatically since hunting bans were brought in during the 1970s.
Salties have allegedly been connected to nearly 20 fatal human attacks during the past two decades, including the death of a 12 year old girl in July 2024.
