A Florida father of five who took a shortcut home through a wooded area on Thursday was killed when a pack of dogs bit him more than 100 times, say police.
The body of Melvin Olds Jr., 45, was found behind a residence around the corner from his Lake Placid home shortly before noon on Thursday, the Highland County Sheriff’s Office says in a release.
An Friday autopsy determined the preliminary cause of death was from injuries suffered during an animal attack. More than 100 bites were found on his body.
A father and grandfather, Olds was last seen alive hours earlier. He was walking through a wooded pathway near his home that he used as a shortcut when he encountered the dogs, the Sheriff’s Office says.
“He was a good person, a good man,” his mother, Cynthia Hill, told local station WFLA.
She and her family are “just so hurt, deeply because it’s so unexpected.”
Hill added, “I thought a dog was a man’s best friend.”
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Highlands County Sheriff’s Office Animal Services officers have set traps and Animal Services units have been patrolling the area looking for loose dogs that may have been involved in the attack, the Sheriff’s Office says.
Six dogs have been captured in the area whose bites match the wounds on Olds’ body, the Sheriff’s Office says.
Still, the Sheriff’s Office cautions, “that alone is not enough to say for sure that they were the animals involved.”
DNA from those dogs will be compared to DNA collected from the wounds to see if a positive connection can be made, the release says.
“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,” Sheriff Paul Blackman said in the release. “We don’t want anyone else to be injured.”
Olds’ fiancé, Jannell Ward, told WFLA she had seen stray dogs roaming the neighborhood before.
“They growled a couple times but they never ran up to me,” she told the outlet. “They never came at me or insinuated that they were going to bite me. I never got that feeling.”
Anyone who sees loose dogs in the area should avoid approaching them and contact the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office at 863-402-7200.
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