Terry Garner, 69, who lived near the rural town of Riverton in southern Oregon, went to feed the animals on his farm at 7:30 a.m.
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| Terry Garner's farm on the Oregon coast where remains of his body were found in a hog enclosure. |
When he wasn't seen for several hours, a family member went to look for him, and found Garner's dentures on the ground in front of the hog enclosure, which housed several of the animals.
While searching the hog enclosure, the family member found Garner's body in several pieces, with a majority of it consumed by the hogs, the district attorney said.
Now deputies are investigating how Garner ended up in a position where the hogs were able to eat him.
District Attorney Paul Frasier said there are a number of possible scenarios, including one in which Garner suffered a heart attack. Another possible scenario is that given Garner's age and health, the hogs were able to knock him down and kill him. Frasier said there have been reports that at least one of the hogs had been aggressive toward Garner in the past.
Because of the unusual circumstances surrounding Garner's death, detectives haven't ruled out foul play.
“For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it’s so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities,” Frasier told The Register-Guard.
A forensic pathologist examined what little was left of Garner's body over the weekend, but was not able to identify the cause or manner of death.
For now, Garner's cause of death is listed as undetermined, and his remains will be further examined by a forensic anthropologist at the University of Oregon.
Garner was described by his brother Michael, 75, as “a good-hearted guy” who cared for several huge adult sows and a boar named Teddy.
“Those animals were his life,” Michael Garner said to The Register-Guard. “He had all kinds of birds, and turkeys that ran all over the place. Everybody knew him.”
Michael Garner said one of the large sows bit his brother last year when he accidentally stepped on a piglet.
“He said he was going to kill it, but when I asked him about it later, he said he had changed his mind,” the brother said.
Domestic hogs are not typically known to be as aggressive as their feral cousins, but “there is some degree of danger associated with any animal,” John Killefer, who heads the Animal and Rangeland Sciences Department at Oregon State University in Corvallis, told the newspaper.
While pigs “are more omnivorous than other farm animals, (such as) cows,” Killefer called the case highly unusual.
(KPTV - Oct 1, 2012)
