East Texas woman’s death a rare fatal hog attack

Officials: Animal unprotected in Arkansas, Texas; public free to kill them outside of cities

A home health care worker found dead Sunday outside the Texas residence of an elderly couple she’d been assisting was killed by a pack of feral hogs, police said.

“I don’t want to go into detail, but in my 35 years, I will tell you it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen,” Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne told KHOU.

Christine Rollins’ body was found Sunday in Anahuac, just east of Houston, with “multiple injuries to her body,” according to a press release from the Chambers County Sheriff’s Office. The 59-year-old victim was likely on her way to care for the elderly couple that lived in the residence when she was attacked.

Rollins was found by the 84-yearold homeowner after she did not show up for her scheduled shift, police said.

Because there were different sizes of bites on her body, investigators think multiple hogs attacked her, Hawthorne said.

“This is a very rare incident,” the sheriff said, adding that the coroner said Rollins bled to death after

the attack by feral hogs.

Rollins also had a head injury consistent with a fall.

“My detectives and criminal-investigation team felt like that’s what it was, but it was not something that we could even come close to announcing until we had the cause of death from the medical examiner’s office,” Hawthorne said, adding that feral hogs have been a problem across the region.

The problem is serious enough in Arkansas that the General Assembly in 2017 created a Feral Hog Eradication Task Force charged with aggressively getting rid of what it calls an invasive species, a public nuisance and a threat to the state.

Mike Bodenchuk, the state director of Texas Wildlife Services, said that while attacks are rare, the hogs are more active in the dark.

Feral hogs, officially classified as an invasive species in the state, were likely roaming the property when Rollins showed up for work while it was still dark.

While they’re not usually dangerous, they do boast “razor sharp tusks” and can grow up to weigh a few hundred pounds. Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife officials said those traits “combined with their lighting speed can cause serious injury.”

Jim Cathey, an associate director for the Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, said hogs are stoutly built and powerful when they rear back with their heads. “It’s a very quick, powerful motion,” he said.

The sheriff said the couple Rollins worked for live near about a dozen acres of pasture and woods. It appears Rollins, who lived about 30 miles to the north in Liberty, arrived at her usual time, got out of her car and locked it before she was attacked, the sheriff said.

Her body was found between her vehicle and the front door of the home, he said.

Tony Sandles Jr. said Tuesday that his mother-inlaw wouldn’t have gotten out of her car if she had known the hogs were near.

“She’s very, very cautious,” he said.

Sandles said she was like family to the people she cared for. She’d been a caretaker for about 40 years — cooking, cleaning, housesitting and keeping those she cared for company.

Bodenchuk said it’s estimated that of the about 6 million feral hogs in the U.S., about 3 million are in Texas. He said they’re unprotected in Texas, and landowners are free to kill them.

Arkansas residents may kill them during daylight hours without a permit. But Texarkana ordinances prohibit any hunting in the city.

Animal control, however, may trap and shoot feral hogs within the city limits. To report feral hogs within the city limits, call Animal Control at 870-773-6388.

The Associated Press, New York Daily News and the Gazette’s Karl Richter contributed to this report.