POLK COUNTY, Fla. (NBC) – A Florida man, found eaten by an alligator this summer, died from a meth overdose before his body was ripped apart by the reptile, according to a medical examiner’s findings.

Michael Ford, 45, was found face down in a canal in Fort Meade on June 27 and Polk County Sheriff’s investigators theorized he might have drowned before an alligator began eating the man’s remains.

(Polk County Sheriff’s Office Photo)

A hand and a foot belonging to Ford was found in the beast’s stomach.

“It is my opinion that Michael Glenn Ford II died as a result of a methamphetamine intoxication,” District Medical Examiner Stephen Nelson wrote in an autopsy report obtained by NBC News on Thursday. “The manner of death is accident.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com.

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