Two pit bulls maul owner to death in Va.

Bethany Lynn Stephens had been gone for about a day since she left to walk her dogs.

So her father went to look for her at the area she frequented. There, authorities say, he found her two dogs, guarding what he first thought was an animal carcass.

“Much to his horror, he discovered that it was not,” Goochland County Sheriff Jim Agnew told reporters Friday.

Investigators in Goochland, Va., about 30 miles outside of Richmond, say the petite, 5-foot-1 young woman, who weighed a little more than 100 pounds, was mauled to death by her dogs, which had a combined weight of about twice hers, while out on a walk this past week. Her father found her Thursday evening in a wooded area that used to be a farm, about a half a mile from the main road.

During the conference, Agnew described the dogs as “very large brindle-colored pit bull dogs.”

“The dogs clearly, at least in our estimation in a dark night, had something to do with this. It was an absolutely grisly mauling,” Agnew told reporters. “In my 40 years of law enforcement, I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

Officials from the county’s animal control department and sheriff’s office spent at least an hour trying to tranquilize the animals, Agnew said. Investigators also found bloody articles of clothing scattered in the area.

Agnew said investigators do not know why the animals turned on Stephens. According to the medical examiner’s office, the 22-year-old had defensive wounds on her hands and arms, which indicated she was attacked while alive. Investigators say she was first attacked on her throat and face.

“It appears she was taken to the ground, lost consciousness and the dogs mauled her to death,” Agnew told reporters.

Agnew said Stephens’ relatives have requested the dogs be euthanized.