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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10235681/

"The Associated Press
Updated: 4:10 a.m. ET Nov. 28, 2005


THORNDALE, Texas - A pack of six dogs mauled a 76-year-old woman to death as she worked in her yard, authorities said.

Lillian Loraine Stiles was riding on a lawn mower in her front yard Saturday when she was confronted by the dogs, described as pit bull-rottweiler mixed breeds, said Milam County Sheriff Charlie West.

Investigators think Stiles was attacked when she got off the mower and headed into her house.

Stiles had severe bites over her entire body, and a man who tried to help her was bitten on one leg, authorities said.

The dogs were found at the home of Stiles’ neighbor, Jose Hernandez.

The sheriff’s department will send the findings of its investigation to the Milam County District Attorney’s Office, which will decide if any criminal charges will be filed against Hernandez.

Thorndale is located about 70 miles west of College Station"


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http://www.statesman.com/

"MILAM COUNTY

Woman, 76, killed in dog attack near Thorndale
Pack of dogs also injures would-be rescuer.
By Suzannah Gonzales
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, November 28, 2005

On Saturday afternoon, Lillian Stiles was doing what she loved, tending her yard and flowers from atop her riding lawn mower. About 4:15 p.m., she would be found fatally mauled by a pack of dogs.

Stiles, 76, was found lying in her front yard at her home near Thorndale with bites all over her body. She had been attacked by six pit bull-Rottweiler mixed-breed dogs owned by a man living less than 500 yards away, Milam County sheriff's deputies said.

A man who stopped to help Stiles also was badly injured by the dogs.

He was taken to Scott & White Hospital in Temple, where he was treated for several bites on his torso, right leg and groin and later released.

Stiles died of her injuries, according to the sheriff's department. She may have gotten off the mower and tried to make it to her home when she was attacked.

Sheriff's deputies said they expected preliminary results from an autopsy today.

Milam County and Thorndale law enforcement officers took five of the dogs into custody at their owner's residence Saturday night. They are being held at the Veterinary Medical Arts Center in Cameron. The sixth dog was shot dead by Stiles' husband, Jack.

DNA evidence was taken from the dogs to link them to the attack, and they will be tested for rabies, said Milam County Sheriff Charlie West.

The dogs' owner, Jose Hernandez of Thorndale, could not provide records showing that the dogs had been vaccinated, West said.

Hernandez was not home at the time of the attack, said West, who added that he would consult with the Milam County district attorney's office about filing criminal charges.

The dogs apparently were kept in a pen behind a 3-foot chain-link fence with no top rail. Electric fencing low along the inside of the pen was meant to keep them from digging and getting out.

Hernandez could not be reached for comment Sunday.

While his wife of 55 years was out in the yard, Jack Stiles, 76, was inside watching the University of Oklahoma-Oklahoma State football game. It was not unusual for her to stay outside for hours at a time, he said, "especially when I was watching a football game that she cared nothing about."

If Lillian Stiles wasn't mowing the one-acre yard she had landscaped, she was admiring it, her husband said. "I couldn't keep her off the lawn mower. She loved it. She was proud of her yard."

She was found by Weldon and Maurita Smith, both 60. The Smiths were on their way home to Rockdale after Christmas shopping in Temple, driving along FM 486 where the Stileses live, when they saw Lillian Stiles collapsed in her yard.

"That looks like a body laying beside that tractor," Weldon Smith remembered his wife saying.

"You sure?" he asked.

She said she was pretty sure, he recalled.

"You want me to turn back?" he asked his wife.

"Yeah," she said.

Weldon Smith saw blood on the ground around Lillian Stiles' head. He got out of his Ford F-250 pickup and told his wife to call 911.

Smith said he walked about 50 feet and saw four large dogs coming toward him — 70 pounds to 90 pounds each, maybe heavier, he estimated. They stood between him and Stiles' body.

The dogs seemed to work as a team, like wolves attacking a deer, Smith said. "That's the best way to describe it.

"I saw it, and I didn't believe it," he said. "It's like something out of a horror movie."

There was no way he could get past them, Smith said. He started to back up, walking slowly.

A light brown dog jumped at his neck. Smith said he kept his forearms raised, guarding his throat. Meanwhile, other dogs nipped at him.

"I knew my only salvation was to get to the truck," he said.

Smith ran and tried to climb on the truck. He got his left leg on the bumper, but as his right leg went up, one of the dogs grabbed it by the pants leg. Smith kicked, trying to shove the dog away. Eventually, the dog let go.

Maurita Smith stood on a step of the truck, on the phone with 911 operators. She was not hurt.

The Smiths drove up the Stileses' driveway. Weldon Smith knocked on the door, and Jack Stiles answered.

"There's a body in your front yard," Stiles recalled Smith saying. "Do you have a gun?"

The dogs were coming back.

Stiles shot a whitish-gray dog that charged him. The others scattered. Stiles fired a second shot at another dog, but it was too far away.

Stiles saw clothes the dogs had ripped off his wife's body. "If it had not been in my front yard, I wouldn't have recognized her," he said. "When I went out there, I knew she was dead."

West said he did not recall receiving any complaints about the dogs before. Aside from the state dog laws, including those that require vaccinations and give him the authority to take vicious dogs into custody, West said there are no dog ordinances in Milam County.

In his nearly 30 years with the sheriff's department, West said he had never seen an attack like this before.

Lillian Stiles was born in San Gabriel, a farmer's daughter. The Stileses were high school sweethearts. They met as freshmen at Thorndale High School.

"She was beautiful," Jack Stiles said. "Couldn't miss her. She was so pretty."

Lillian Stiles is survived by her husband, three children, seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. "

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