Police chief still believes that dogs killed woman, 49
The children of the victim suspect foul play led to her death.
CLEARCREEK TWP., WARREN COUNTY — Warren County authorities remain convinced a Clearcreek Twp. woman was mauled to death Nov. 1 at her home by the family’s Great Danes, despite continued skepticism from her children.
The body of Mary M. Matthews, 49, an employee of the Hometown Marketplace store in Waynesville, was found in the bathroom of her home off Ohio 73 between Springboro and Waynesville.
While they had awaited toxicology reports, investigation by township police and the Warren County Coroner’s Office, as well as the autopsy, indicated Matthews bled to death after escaping the two dogs, found on an outside porch.
“Sometimes it is what it is,” Clearcreek Twp. Police Chief John Terrill said Thursday. “We’re doing a final review of the case.”
“I feel for the family,” Terrill added. “This is an unusual, tragic death.”
Matthews’ daughter, Brooke Francis, told WHIO-TV that she, like her brother, wanted authorities to continue to investigate their mother’ death.
“I believe that there is a possibility that there is someone who had something to do with this and wanted her gone,” Francis said.
Francis said she has collected phone records, text message chains and legal documents she said are enough to prompt a fresh look at her mother’s death.
Terrill said he and his investigators had met with Matthews’ children and reviewed evidence turned over to them. The police chief, a former majorcrimes detective in Middletown, said a Florida-based investigator had “fanned the flames” for Francis and brother Brandon Evans with a “third dog” theory — possibly involving a coyote or another dog they had at the house — that “just doesn’t hold up for us.”
“She was bitten over 200 times,” Terrill said, suggesting the loss of blood could have compromised her ability to save herself with a call for help.
“This took a matter of time,” said Doyle Burke, chief investigator for the county coroner. “She could have called for help. She chose not to.”
Terrill said Matthews, a 1988 graduate of Troy High School, assisted them in picking up her husband’s car after he was arrested at a local market and had one of the dogs with her.
Husband Mark Dale Matthews called police Nov. 1 and reported finding his wife unresponsive as a possible overdose victim, according to reports.
Like Burke, Terrill acknowledged the toxicology test showed no trace of alcohol and only the level of drugs associated with her prescription.
This adds to questions why Mary Matthews never called 911, although she took time to change clothes after the attack.
The lack of alcohol also seemed to contradict her husband’s assertion that she abused drugs and beer everyday.
“Those statements came through him, not through us,” Terrill said, while noting beer cans were “stacked two-foot thick” around the house.
“We’re working handin-hand with Clearcreek. There’s not a whole lot more to say about it,” Burke added Thursday.
Terrill said the case would probably be closed next week.
“We need to wrap the thing up,” he said. “We’ll make sure there’s nothing else out there.”
Sean Cudahy of WHIO-TV contributed to this report.