A woman in Colorado is facing dozens of criminal charges after her 76-year-old mother with dementia was found mauled to death among more than two dozen dogs living at their home.
Jessica Hoff, 47, was arrested Friday in connection to the death of LaVonne Hoff, said a news release from the sheriff’s office in Pueblo county, Colorado, that laid out a case containing elder and animal neglect allegations.
The sheriff’s office said first responders pronounced Hoff dead at the Colorado City home which she shared with her daughter after deputies had been called to investigate a report about an unconscious woman on 3 February. Deputies noted that there were several dogs running around the Hoffs’ home – and there were about 24 other dogs and seven birds in cages there.
An autopsy later revealed that LaVonne Hoff had died of injuries resulting from a dog attack, the sheriff’s office said. Before she died, her daughter had left her home alone to run errands about 25 miles away in Pueblo, and the dogs that were loose at their property mauled the mother, deputies alleged.
Investigators subsequently searched a second property in Colorado City owned by Jessica Hoff. And there, they allegedly discovered 54 more dogs as well as seven more birds in her possession. The animals were “living in unsanitary conditions, and several of the dogs were in poor health”, the sheriff’s office wrote in its news release on the case.
Deputies worked with local animal control officers to seize the dogs and birds in question.
Meanwhile, they booked Jessica Hoff on criminal negligence resulting in the death of an at-risk adult as well as 54 counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.
Hoff remained in custody Monday at the Pueblo county jail, online records show. She was being held in lieu of $50,000 bail.
Under Colorado law, criminal negligence resulting in an at-risk person’s death can carry between two and six years in prison. And aggravated cruelty to animals can carry between a year and 18 months in prison.
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