6-Months-Pregnant French Woman Is Mauled to Death by Pack of Dogs While Walking Her Own Dog
A pregnant woman was mauled to death by a pack of dogs while walking her own dog in the woods, according to multiple reports.
On Saturday afternoon, 29-year-old Elisa Pilarski was walking her dog on a trail in Saint-Pierre-Aigle’s Forest of Retz, about 50 miles northeast of Paris, when she called her husband at work, according to French news outlets, FranceInfo, L’Union and La Rép des Pyrénées.
Pilarski — who was six months pregnant — told him she felt unsafe because of a nearby pack of threatening dogs.
Worried, Pilarski’s husband left his job and went to help his wife. When he arrived at the forest, he followed the cries of the family’s dog and found the dog injured and curled up beside his wife’s body, which was covered in bites, L’Union reports.
The couple lived near the forest. After finding her body, Pilarski’s husband reportedly went to a neighbor’s home and told her, “My wife was killed by dogs,” prompting her to call for help.
On Monday, a medical examiner announced Pilarski had been mauled to death.
“The autopsy determined that the death occurred between [1 p.m.] and [1:30 p.m.] and was due to hemorrhage consecutive to several dog bites in the upper and lower limbs and in the head, some bites being ante mortem and others post mortem,” Frédéric Trinh, the prosecutor of the Republic of Soissons, said in a statement obtained by FranceInfo, L’Union and La Rép des Pyrénées.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for PEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletter for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
The pack of dogs Pilarski feared may have belonged to a local hunting crew based in the village of Morsain, according to the newspaper.
In his statement, Trinh said that investigators are trying to determine the origin of the bites.
In an interview with La Rép des Pyrénées, Pilarski’s family said the 29-year old “loved life and was passionate about animals.”
