Thorndale, Texas

From the Bryan Eagle of November 28, 2005

Thorndale 'killing frenzy' investigated

Dogs that attacked woman may be euthanized

Jack Stiles was watching football Saturday afternoon in his Thorndale home when he heard an urgent knock at the front door.

A man, pursued by a pack of pit bull-rottweiler crossbreeds, shouted at the 76-year-old Stiles, "There's a body in your yard."

Then the man asked frantically: "Do you have a gun?"

Stiles retrieved his .22-caliber pistol and shot one of the six dogs in his yard. The other dogs dispersed. Stiles then followed the man, whose leg had been punctured, to the blood-covered body in his yard.

He didn't immediately recognize his wife of 55 years lying on the ground.

"I wouldn't have known that this was my wife had I not recognized her clothes," Stiles said.

Milam County investigators returned Sunday to the home where Lillian Stiles was fatally attacked by a pack of dogs in what the sheriff described as a "killing frenzy."

The 76-year-old woman was riding a lawn mower in her front yard on F.M. 486 in Thorndale at about 4:15 p.m. when the dogs approached her. Sheriff's deputies say she may have gotten off the lawn mower and headed for her house when she was attacked.

Stiles suffered severe bites all over her body, investigators said.

"It's quite traumatic," Sheriff Charlie West said. "This woman was mutilated."

(Much more)