Two dogs put down after being found eating owner in woods

Police do not suspect foul play was involved in the 22-year-old woman's death

Ms Stephens is pictured here with one of her dogs (Facebook)

Two dogs have been euthanised after they were found eating the flesh of the woman who took care of them.

Police say they found Virginia woman Bethany Lynn Stephens near a pool of blood, and with one of the dogs gnawing at her ribcage. After shooing the dog away from the corpse, they said they discovered multiple dog bites.

“While we were thinking about strategies to catch the dogs, we had turned and looked, the dogs had gone back over to the body,” Sheriff Jim Agnew told reporters during a press conference. “And I observed, along with four other deputy sheriffs observed, the dog eating the rib cage on the body. We were able to shoo them away.”

The sheriff then showed reporters pictures of the scene, and indicated that the family had given their blessing to do so.

The photos showed the 22-year-old woman’s clothes shredded into piece sand scattered over a large area. Police indicated that the dogs had blood on their fur as well.

Detectives have said that they are treating the incident as an accident, and said that the dogs had become increasingly isolated recently, and were frequently left outside in the could and seen infrequently by Ms Stephens. They indicated that they do not suspect foul play at this time.

“The medical examiner in his preliminary talk with our deputies made it pretty clear that it was not a large animal, because the bite wounds on her head did not penetrate her skull,” Mr Agnew said, indicating that the dogs were the likely cause of death.

Police said that there weren’t other tell-tale signs of foul play, like broken bones, or bruising on the neck that may have indicated strangulation.

“They did a CAT scan x-ray of her body before they even did the autopsy,” investigator Shawn Whitlock said. “And there was nothing that said domestic violence. Nothing that said she was stabbed. Nothing that said she was shot. No bones broken. No injuries to the throat area.”

Officials said they were putting out the information so publicly in order to quell rumors on social media, and to help the family get privacy.