Grieving husband says he fought off dogs trying to drag away his wife after they mauled her

A man is grieving the loss of his wife of 25 years after she was brutally mauled to death by dogs allegedly belonging to their neighbor in Florida.

A spokesperson for the Brevard County Sheriff's Office said police were investigating the mauling death of a woman on Tuesday.

'Seeing the same woman I've loved for the last 30 years, 25 years just ripped apart by two animals was just ... I'll never get that image out of my mind.'

Donnell Smith told WESH-TV that he went to help a neighbor at about 1 a.m. and returned to his home to find his wife, Jodi Cowan, and one of her dogs gone.

He said he heard a faint cry for help and then saw that his wife was being dragged away.

"I saw the silhouette of the two dogs dragging my wife down the road, off into the grass in front of the truck down there," Smith said tearfully.

He said his wife was in a pool of blood and the dogs returned to try to continue dragging her away.

"I pulled my knife out, you know, just swinging with it one hand and holding the blood with the other, trying to stop her from bleeding," Smith said.

Smith said he was eventually able to call 911 and his wife was flown to a hospital, but she died hours later.

"It was brutal. Seeing the same woman I've loved for the last 30 years, 25 years just ripped apart by two animals was just ... I'll never get that image out of my mind," Smith added.

He believes she may have gone out to save their dog from the neighbor's dogs and then became a victim herself.

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Smith says the dogs belonged to a neighbor and that he had previously warned the sheriff's office about the threat from the dogs.

"I told them that she had those two pits that get out all the time and run the neighborhood and have been aggressive towards people, and they didn't do anything about it," Smith said. "My wife lost her life because of it."

WESH reached out to the sheriff's department to confirm whether it had received the prior complaints about the dogs. A spokesperson said the department would provide an update as the investigation progresses.

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