Georgia doctor mauled to death by wild dogs, ferocious beasts still on the loose: 'She was a pet lover'
LYONS, GEORGIA: A Georgia doctor has died after she was attacked by a pack of wild dogs, authorities said. Dr Nancy Shaw was found dead in a ditch around 3 am on Thursday, May 7, after police in Lyons spotted her car pulled over on the wrong side of the road with the engine running and a door open.
“Got out of the patrol car to investigate and found a female that was deceased in the ditch,” Lyons Police Chief Wesley Walker said. The officials recognized her as Dr Shaw, who previously worked in Connecticut and was a long-time internist at Meadows Regional Medical Center.
Walker said that the 62-year-old doctor often stopped at the local police station to check on officials if they were okay. “She was that kind of person. She was a caring person. She was a friend of ours. When I realized who it was, it was devastating,” he stated.
The autopsy results confirmed that the doctor and noted pet lover was attacked and killed by the wild beasts and now the officers are working with other city departments to locate the animals and take appropriate action.
"We are actively trying to locate some dogs that were seen running loose in the area around this same time to see if there is any evidence of that. We do believe that a couple of the dogs do have collars on so we feel like they did belong to someone but haven’t had any luck yet," Walker said while asking the residents of the area to be careful and call the Lyons Police Department if they see any suspicious animals.
A similar kind of incident happened in Florida in July 2019 when a man was mauled to death by a pack of dogs after he took a shortcut through a wooded area on his walk home. Melvin Olds Jr’s body was found with more than than 100 dog bites behind a residence in the Highway Park neighborhood, south of Lake Placid. An autopsy revealed that Olds had no other wound mark other than those that would have been caused by dogs.
Highlands County Sheriff's Office said they caught six dogs in connection with the death of the 45-year-old father of five after their bite sizes matched the wounds on the man’s body. “While we may have the dogs that were responsible for this horrible tragedy, we won’t know for sure for a while.
"I want to encourage residents of Highway Park and the surrounding area to be on the lookout for any loose dogs, especially those that seem aggressive. We don’t want anyone else to be injured,” Sheriff Paul Blackman said in a statement at the time.
Meanwhile, Olds’ mother Cynthia Hill said she was “hurt deeply” by the unexpected death of his.