A 78-year-old East Alabama woman who visited her neighbor’s mother died this week after her neighbor’s dogs attacked the elderly woman while the two friends embraced in a hug, authorities say.
Patricia Marie Burt died Tuesday, one day after the attack in her next-door neighbor’s yard in a rural area southeast of Beulah, an unincorporated community near the Georgia state line.
According to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, about 5:15 p.m. Monday, deputies responded to the area’s Valley community for a report of a dog attack.
Arriving deputies found several people trying to help an elderly woman who had been mauled by two large Cane Corso breed dogs, the agency told USA TODAY.
Both Cane Corso dogs shot during attack
Witnesses told officers Burt walked over to her neighbor’s house next door where both dogs lived to visit her friend, whose son lived in the home.
“Mrs. Burt hugged her friend and the dogs attacked her,” the agency wrote in a statement released to USA TODAY.
Family members and neighbors attempted to get the dogs off the victim, but it was not until a family member grabbed a gun and shot both dogs that they let go of her.
The victim was transported by ambulance to Piedmont Medical Center in Columbus, Georgia where she died the next day.
Both dogs died, the sheriff’s office said.
‘We spent every waking minute together’
The victim’s husband, Thomas Burt, told WRBL-TV he shot the dogs.
“She was a good person. She was my friend, my best buddy,” the victim’s husband told the outlet. “We spent every waking minute together. I loved her so much.”
The sheriff’s office told USA TODAY the case remained under investigation on Friday and will be presented to a Lee County Grand Jury for further review.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
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