Illinois: Woman mauled by relative's two pit bulls

ILLINOIS -- A woman is recovering after two dogs attacked her last week. It happened in the 1400 block of E. Walnut St. on Friday.

Her granddaughters say she was attacked on her way into a house. Now they want the owners to pay for what happened.

The woman's family says she started out in a regular hospital room, but this weekend she had to be moved into the ICU.

As Jasmine Eckart looks at an older picture of her grandmother, she wonders if she will ever look that way again.

"Well first I saw the pictures, and that shook me up. They were horrible, but seeing it in person was 10 times worse," she says. "When I saw her arm I had to leave the room instantly because it was just awful seeing a big chunk of her arm gone."

Her sister was with Connie Sue Vo today she got those injuries. She says she went with her grandma to pick something up from her ex husband, who lives with his niece on E. Walnut St. She stayed in the car while her grandma went to the front door.

Cherity simper says, "No longer than 10 seconds after I parked in the car, I looked back and heard her scream and she went down quick."

She says a black pit bull came at her first, followed by a tan one

"She had to have stitches on her face, a big chunk out of her arm, and a few nicks and bites on her legs. .. A puddle of blood down her face. She was conscious for the whole thing."

Lt. Jon Butts of the Macon County Sheriff's Department says when officers arrived on scene they couldn't find the dogs. Within a day they were both in custody. He says investigators believe the attack was unintentional. but the images he saw were shocking.

Butts says, "I've been in law-enforcement for 28 years. You seem to be callous to a point, but every time you see something like this it's hard wrenching and it's very sad."

Off-camera, one of the dogs' owners said she has known Vo for years, and what happened was an accident. Her granddaughters say someone needs to be held accountable.

"I hope the owners of the dogs get what they deserve from the justice system because it is fully their responsibility for what happened," Eckart says. "I hope my grandmother gets better, and I honestly don't know if that's going to happen."

Both dogs will remain in custody until the investigation is finished. No word on if or when the owners will get them back.

In a case like this there is a series of tests that a dog has to go through. Macon County Animal Control says any time a dog bites someone it has to be quarantined for a minimum of 10 days. Once they know if it's been vaccinated and taken care of properly, then they decide whether to return it to the owner.

(Illinois Homepage - Sept 12, 2016)