WARNING: Graphic content
The whale killed a total of 3 trainers throughout his life
An experienced SeaWorld trainer died of ‘drowning and traumatic injuries’ after being mauled by a 5.4 tonne killer whale, police reports show
Dawn Brancheau, 41, was snatched and dragged into the water so quickly by the orca, called Tilikum, that no one saw it happen, not even the trainer working as Brancheau’s ‘spotter’, The Daily Star reported. The incident took place during a live show in Orlando’s SeaWorld.
A police report written after the horrifying event in February 2010 reveals the grim details of what happened to Brancheau during the incident.
Jan Topoleski told investigators: “Dawn was lying on her stomach…Tilikum was interacting with her nose to nose. Dawn’s long hair floated on the water in to Tilikum’s mouth.”
He said that he watched as the trainer struggled to free her hair from the killer whale’s mouth. He then made the decision to turn around to push the alarm button.
However, when Topoleski looked back, Brancheau was no longer in sight.
Emergency sirens were heard throughout the marine park, and Brancheau’s colleagues raced to the pool in an attempt to confine Tilikum with nets and distract him by offering him food. Tilikum refused to respond.
Tilikum, who was then 28, had already been responsible for the deaths of two people since he was captured. The orca was considered so dangerous that no trainers were permitted to swim with him, the Mirror reported.
At one point, Dawn reportedly managed to break free from Tilikum and swim to the surface, however the killer whale slammed into her, before clamping his jaws around her middle and shaking her, as reported by the Mirror.
One spectator, Victoria Biniak, who recalled the incident, told WKMG-TV that the killer whale “took off really fast in the tank and he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing her around, and one of her shoes flew off.”
CCTV footage from SeaWorld showed the trainer entering the pool at 13:38 and just five minutes later the killer whale was spotted swimming with Brancheau’s lifeless body in his mouth. Her body was retrieved from the pool some 20 minutes later.
Tilikum, who died in January 2017, was involved in three out of the four known killings involving orcas in captivity.
