Human remains discovered inside crocodile during search for woman killed in attack

Police in Australia have found human remains inside a crocodile killed off the northeast coast in their search for a body of a woman who died in a recent reptile attack.

Cindy Waldron was attacked by a crocodile during a late night swim at Thornton Beach in Daintree National Park on Sunday and police set up a number of traps in the hope of catching the guilty crocodile.

Authorities in Queensland caught the 4.3m estuarine croc on Friday and moved it to a secure Environment Department facility in Cairns where staff are said to be confident it is the crocodile responsible for the fatal attack having found human remains inside it.

"At this stage police believe the remains are those of a woman who was reported missing on May 29," police said. "Police will be preparing a report for the coroner."

Prior to the capture of this crocodile, another smaller one was captured on Thursday but officers from the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection were less inclined to believe it was the animal sought.

It was sedated it and the contents of its stomach flushed out but the results were inconclusive, ABC reported.

Speaking after the attack, Waldron’s sister Anna-Lee Annett described the 46-year-old woman’s death as "the most heartbreaking, horrendous thing" to happen to their family while her father said his daughter had been an impulsive person and would often "do crazy things."

"What she did there was a crazy thing, absolutely crazy. But that was her," he said.

Local MP Warren Entsch described the incident on Monday as a case of "human stupidity."

"You can only get there by ferry, and there are signs there saying watch out for the bloody crocodiles," he said, adding that "if you go in swimming at 10 o’clock at night, you’re going to get consumed."