(The following story contains material that some readers may consider graphic.)
Klamath Falls, Ore. – Incident reports have been released detailing events that surrounded the “brutal mauling” of a 10-year-old Klamath Falls girl.
Documents show Klamath County 911 first received a report of a dog attack involving a 10-year-old in the 3800 block of Shasta Way on the evening of June 1.
When police arrived at the scene, a girl was being loaded onto an ambulance with serious injuries.
A Klamath County Sheriff’s deputy noticed the girl’s father standing near the entrance to the neighbor’s yard where the attack occurred. He was covered in blood and “clearly in shock.”
The father told the deputy the owner of the dogs was a long-haul trucker and had been gone for around a week. He said his daughter had been feeding and watering the dogs since Monday.
Documents indicate the father told police his daughter had gone to the home to get a brush to clean out dog bowls.
She didn’t return right away, and the father assumed she was with friends in the neighborhood, which wasn’t unusual.
However, as dusk began to fall, he went to look for her. That’s when he said he found her sitting upright in a state of shock “inside of the [neighbor’s] gate with all her clothes stripped off, blood all over her body, and a piece of her head next to her.”
While a deputy was taking the father to the hospital to see his daughter, he called the owner of the dogs, police said.
The deputy heard the father tell the owner of dogs several times, “they bit her head off.”
According to the deputy, he asked the father to end the conversation due to the emotional toll it appeared to be taking.
The father hung up the phone and explained to the deputy his neighbor was on an AmTrak train approximately 15 minutes away.
When pressed for more information during the drive, the father broke down and cried, saying several times, “I killed her.”’
The father and deputy arrived at the hospital to find the girl in critical condition. She was later flown to a Portland-area hospital for further treatment.
According to an officer who helped transfer the girl from the ambulance to the emergency room, she was “covered with a very large amount of blood, had no hair on her scalp and had no clothing on.”
The officer added the girl had what appeared to be multiple puncture wounds and scratches on her body. She also appeared to have shallow breathing and was shivering uncontrollably.
According to incident reports, the owner of the dogs met with law enforcement officers at his residence just after the mauling.
Police said the owner repeatedly stated he had no idea why the girl was at his home with the dogs. He had reportedly sent text messages to the father saying the girl was not allowed in the yard.
The girl had contact with the dogs in the past, but never unsupervised by the owner, he told deputies.
He added he couldn’t understand how the girl got into the yard in the first place, as there is an electric fence surrounding it.
The owner said he had automatic feeding set up for the dogs, and the father’s only task was to fill the dogs’ water from over the fence with a hose.
The next day, animal control officers seized four Bull Mastiff dogs from the residence.
They then took photographs of what appeared to be a blood trail from the attack.
An officer wrote that they found “blood dropping [sic] in multiple locations on the ground that created a pattern where it appeared the child was attempting to get away from the dogs, ending close to the gate…”
In the days following the incident, officers obtained screen shots of text messages (grammatical errors included in this article) that appear to be correspondence between the owner and the girl’s father.
One dated Wednesday, May 31 from the owner reads, “Hello [name redacted] it’s [name redacted] your neighbor! O wanted to see if [name redacted] come check on the dogs this weak while we are gone? If it’s ok ask her to call me please. Thanks for your time [name redacted]”
The father apparently replied, “Shes on it, checks them daily. Walks Sheba. Really loves those pups.”
A screenshot shows another text that appears to be from the father a few days later. “Hey, can’t get into the gate, way to much aggression from Jada on Sheba..don’t feel comfortable with [name redacted] in the mix. Sorry [name redacted]”
The reply read, “No problem be home tomorrow and I really appreciate all she’s been doing! We missed our flight about an hour ago.So we will be getting on the next flight in the morning into Portland Then take a train to Kfalls.”
Nearly a month after the attack, an investigator visited the injured girl at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland on June 30.
The investigator’s report states the girl’s family had a good relationship with the dogs’ owner prior to the attack. The girl even helped raise one of the younger dogs.
According to the girl, she has been providing food and water for the dogs for around a week before the incident.
She told the investigator she had simply walked over to the neighbor’s house to grab a brush to clean the dog bowls. She entered the kennels when the dogs started barking. One of them jumped on her.
She said she was knocked to the ground “then they [the dogs] started biting me and dragging me. Then they took my clothes off.”
The dogs tore off a portion of the girl’s scalp and ear in the attack. She said one laid on her legs so she couldn’t get up. “I feel that if my dad wouldn’t have come and checked on me when he did, I wouldn’t have made it,” she told the investigator.
Her father explained her injuries. “She has a very traumatic scalp injury, she has a punctured lung, there was a very large wound in her chest cavity.”
The girl is continuing to recover. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help with her medical expenses.
On July 14, Klamath County District Attorney Eve Costello said “criminal charges are inappropriate” in this case.
She said an investigation shows the owner did not commit a “criminally negligent act.”
The fate of the four dogs is now the hands of Klamath County government officials.
The Klamath County Board of Commissioners scheduled hearings on August 9 and 10 to discuss whether the dogs should be put down.
“I don’t feel very comfortable with this,” Commissioner Donnie Boyd said. “But I think it’s the right thing to do, regardless of what happens. Both parties had their lives changed in a second.”
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