Well,....I don't know about that. I'm 2 hours south of Jax and rarely see gators. Now if I go inland about 1/2 an hour, I'm much more likely to see them.
Don't read if you get queasy easily:
And in my experience... it's not likely Lonzie was ultimately disappeared via gators unless he was fed to a hungry gator specifically.
My brother killed himself by an inland Florida lake and wasn't found for several days, and while there was some vulture and gator activity, it wasn't what one would expect after several days. Most of his body was intact, he was only missing one limb. He was in the same spot he killed himself, so not dragged or mauled by wildlife. It was the same time of year as Lonzie disappeared so gator activity would be similar. If Lonzie is under water, I would expect regular complete decomposition would occur before gators would disappear him. If you remember Caylee Anthony's disappearance, she also disappeared same time of year, and was put in watery swampy area, but no gator activity. And that area of Florida has pretty consistent gator sightings in populated areas where you wouldn't expect them to be.
Gators snatch small kids and small dogs around here occasionally, and occasionally attack bigger prey, like people or deer, but they like to drag and drown their prey, stash it, and come back later if at all. I've never heard of them scavenging like, say a vulture would. Doesn't mean it wouldn't happen, I've just never heard of it happening. I'd love to know if anyone else has heard of gators scavenging. I've also been to Gatorland in Orlando where they feed the gators whole chickens for the audience to watch. Not one of my favorite animal visits and not realistic as far as natural behavior, but it does illustrate their power and agility.