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Authorities said Friday that a pack of dogs may have attacked and killed a Florida man whose body was riddled with more than 100 bites.
The Highlands County Sheriff's Office said the body of Melvin Olds Jr., 45, was discovered Thursday near Lake Placid, Florida, and investigators, the medical examiner and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission believe he was fatally mauled by dogs.
"No wounds other than those caused by dogs were found on Olds’ body during an autopsy today (July 5)," the sheriff's office said. "More than 100 dog bites were found on his body."
Olds was a father of five and a grandfather, according to NBC affiliate WFLA in Tampa.
“I thought a dog was a man’s best friend,” Cynthia Hill, Olds’ mother, told the TV station. “He was a good person, a good man. Just so hurt, deeply, because it’s so unexpected.”
Dr. Stephen Nelson, the medical examiner, confirmed dog wounds were the man's only injuries, the sheriff's office said.
Olds' fiancée, Jannell Ward, told WFLA she had seen a pack of dogs in their neighborhood.
Animal services officers sets traps and patrolled the area Friday, capturing six dogs with a "bite size" that appeared to match Olds' wounds, sheriff's officials said.
"That alone is not enough to say for sure that they were the animals involved," the sheriff's office said. "DNA from those dogs will be compared to DNA collected from the wounds to see if a positive connection can be made."
Highlands County Sheriff Paul Blackman said, “While we may have the dogs that were responsible for this horrible tragedy, we won’t know for sure for a while.”