A South Carolina woman was killed last Thursday after her dogs suddenly became aggressive and began to attack her as she was play-wrestling with them.
Neighbors called the police after hearing the screams of Nancy Cherryl Burgess-Dismuke, reports WYFF News 4.
“They was trying to kill Miss Nancy,” neighbor Amber Greer told WYFF. “One dog was on one arm eating it, and one was on the other arm eating it,” Greer said. “Remind you, Nancy is what, about 80 pounds? She’s tiny.”
Greer said the 52-year-old woman was yelling, “Help! Somebody help me. They’re attacking me,” and that the situation quickly escalated when the dogs—boxer mixes—stopped playing and instead started “eating her alive.”
Burgess-Dismuk was rushed to the hospital after suffering from a number of serious dog bites. She died about nine hours later.
Another neighbor, Denzel Whiteside, told the Greenville News that Burgess-Dismuke often put her arms in the dogs’ mouths while playing with them in the past. He went on to describe the mauling in graphic detail, recalling how he and his roommate began beating the dogs with a drive shaft and a blunt ax.
“When they finally got the dogs off of her, and finally got them to go, she threw her body over the fence,” Greer said. “She didn’t jump; she threw her body like you never seen before. They were eating her.”
“She was already so far gone. One arm was already bit completely off, the other arm was barely hanging on by a piece of meat,” Whiteside added. “It was the longest 10 minutes of my life.”
Senior Deputy Coroner Kent Dill told the Washington Post that Burgess-Dismuk had gone into cardiac arrest after being transported to the hospital after losing a lot of blood from “extremely severe” dog bites. Her autopsy results and cause of death are still pending.
A spokesman for Greenville County said the dogs were scheduled to be euthanized Friday.
h/t Greenville News