A Tennessee woman remains in the hospital recovering from an attack earlier this month, carried out by family dogs that mauled her children dead.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the incident happened in Millington, near Memphis, at a home close to Shelby Forest State Park, off Sylvan Road. Lilly Jane Bennard, 2, and her 5-month-old brother, Hollace Dean Bennard, passed away Wednesday after their “family dogs” mauled them.
The dogs also attacked the children’s mother, Kirstie Jane Bennard, 30. She was taken to Regional One Health in critical condition. On Thursday afternoon, the sheriff’s office tweeted that Kirstie’s medical status had been “upgraded to stable condition.”
Kirstie’s husband, Colby Bennard, was reportedly unharmed in the incident and wasn’t home when it occurred. It’s unclear what triggered the dogs to attack but the sheriff’s office said that they’ll continue to investigate.
USA Today reports that Colby’s uncle, Jeff Gibson, said the attack lasted around 10 minutes as Kirstie did her best to protect the children.
“She put her body on top of Lilly’s to try and protect her after the attack started,” Colby Bennard’s uncle, Jeff Gibson, said during an interview Saturday. “Both (dogs) started attacking her while she lay on Lilly.”
Gibson added on Facebook that Kirstie had an “uncountable amount of stitches and bite marks over her entire body, including her face.”
Fox News Digital reports that the two pit bulls, named Cheech and Mia, had been family pets for the past eight years without any issues, according to a family friend.
“I can promise you those children were her world, and if there was any inkling of danger, she would have never had those dogs near her kids,” Kirstie’s best friend, Kelsey Canfield, said.
“Those children were everything to them, and they just have a really long journey ahead…The family had the pets, Cheech and Mia, for more than eight years without a violent incident.”
The dogs were taken into custody by the county’s Animal Control and have since been euthanized.
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family with expenses.
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