A dog owner has been charged with manslaughter after an Alabama Department of Public Health employee is believed to have been killed by a pack of "dangerous dogs" last week while following up on a report of an earlier attack by the same dogs, according to police.
Jacqueline Summer Beard, 58, was pronounced dead by the coroner on April 29 after deputies received a call about a suspicious vehicle in a rural area near Red Bay and found her body inside, according to a Facebook post by the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
Deputies witnessed several dogs attacking residents upon arriving at the scene before finding Beard's body, police said.
“It is believed that Beard was attacked as she was attempting to contact the dog’s owner when she was killed by the dogs,” the sheriff’s office wrote.
Some of the dogs were immediately euthanized, police said.
The dogs' owner, Brandy Dowdy, 39, was arrested and charged with manslaughter, according to police.
Beard was in the area following up on an incident previously reported to Franklin County Animal Control, police said. A pack of dogs mauled a woman while she was walking, and the woman remains hospitalized in Mississippi, the sheriff of Franklin County told AL.com.
Beard worked as an environmentalist supervisor in Franklin and had been with the health department for 16 years, according to the ADPH. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment by NBC News.
“Summer was known to her coworkers as an exceptional person," the ADPH told AL.com in a statement. "She was a tremendous team worker and was loved by those who knew her."