Woman found dead with dog bites at Alief home
Elaine Richman lived for her Doberman pinschers, her brother said.
She had owned more than a handful of the dogs, and they were her world. On Friday, she was found dead in her backyard with several dog bite marks on her face, arms and hands, Houston police said.
While ruled an accident, Richman died by “sharp force injuries,” according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. Two Doberman pinschers that were found inside her home are now being held by the BARC Animal Shelter, police said.
The 66-year-old’s brother said it would be premature to talk about how she died, mentioning that full medical reports were not complete.
“It is tragic and unfortunate that she’s leaving us at such a young age,” Bruce Richman said on Monday. “It is just a very, very sad event that has taken place, but you know you have to remember the joy that she brought to so many of these dogs.”
Authorities found the woman around 8 a.m. Friday after being dispatched to the 12800 block of Susanna Lane in Alief for a welfare check. When they arrived, they saw the unresponsive woman, later identified as Richman, in the backyard with her wounds, police said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses told police they hadn't seen the woman at her dog training classes for the last two days, authorities said in a news release. Richman prided herself on the animals, her brother said.
“What she liked to do was to be with her dogs,” he said. “I always say that whenever I talked to her, her voice would light up in discussion on what this dog or that dog did.”
Richman has had a number of the Dobermans — all different sizes and colors. One of them, Oz, was a prize show dog, Bruce Richman said.
Dog handler Theresa Nail, who has shown Oz in competitions, said that Richman's dogs were “champions,” well-behaved and very sweet.
But some neighbors and other family members shared a different story with police. They said that Richman was using training methods that made the dogs “overly aggressive,” police spokesman Kese Smith said.
Doberman pinschers are known as protective dogs that are “royalty in the canine kingdom,” according to the American Kennel Club. Originally bred by a tax collector in 19th century Germany, they’re muscular and compact dogs weighing up to 100 pounds in males and 90 pounds in females. They’re usually more than 2 feet tall and live 10 to12 years.
Studies pointing to any potential danger of Dobermans are hard to come by, and efforts to categorize harmful behaviors of breeds have been criticized by several prominent animal organizations. Factors other than genetics play into harmful behavior of dogs, the CDC said in 2001.
No recent data was available, however, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a study in the mid-90s that found eight Doberman pinschers involved in dog bite-related deaths from 1978 to 1996. The number placed Dobermans in the top 10 of dog-bite deaths by breed, but still ranked below pit bull-type dogs, Rottweilers, German shepherds, huskies and Alaskan malamutes.
Tom Pincus, president of the Houston Kennel Club, said he was skeptical that Richman's dogs would have caused her death. He added that she wasn’t a member.
“That is extremely unusual, that a person is attacked by their personal dogs,” Pincus said. “I would not believe that for a second until I heard that from a coroner's report.”
It’s unclear how long the dogs will remain in BARC custody.