Ohio grandmother mauled to death by pit bulls while ‘peacefully gardening’: lawsuit

Warning: This story contains graphic content.

Two pit bulls that mauled an Ohio grandmother to death last year were left to roam freely despite their history of attacks, and even got into a stash of cocaine weeks before the incident, according to a newly-filed lawsuit.

Jo Ann Echelbarger, 73, was killed by a pair of pit bulls named Apollo and Echo, which were owned by suspects Susan and Adam Withers, on Oct. 17. The gruesome incident took place at The Reserve at Ashton Village, a residential complex in Ashville, Ohio.

According to a suit filed on behalf of Echelbarger’s family on Mar. 13, the decedent had only lived at the complex for a few months before she was killed. The two pit bulls “ran around the Reserve’s common areas, eventually attacking Jo Ann while she was peacefully gardening.”

“Part of Jo Ann’s harm was the extreme and severe conscious physical and mental pain and suffering she experienced in the moments before, during and after being viciously attacked and prior to her death,” the filing described. “Part of this was caught on some of the most gruesome videos one could ever envision.”

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The tragedy was made worse by Echelbarger’s life-long fear of dogs, the lawsuit noted. The dogs were later killed by police.

“The attack and last moments of Jo Ann’s life were particularly terrifying because Jo Ann feared dogs since she had previously been bitten by a dog as a child,” the lawsuit stated.

“In fact, the dogs were so aggressive and persistent in their menacing, violent, and aggressive behavior that the police were forced to shoot and kill the dogs to end the terror,” the suit described. “And even after bullets hit one of the dogs, it returned to Jo Ann and continued to attack before running back into the Withers’ home.”

According to the lawsuit, the October incident was not the first time the dogs had gotten into trouble. The document lists several violent or disruptive incidents involving the canines – including one Oct. 2023 incident where Apollo attacked a resident and killed their dog.

The Withers’ dogs were reportedly ordered to leave the community in a Sept. 11 court order that hadn’t been enforced, the lawsuit stated.

Three weeks before Echelbarger’s death, on Sept. 27, police were called to see the dogs because “Echo and Apollo had ingested Adam Withers’ cocaine.”

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“The body cam footage of the incident reveals that Ashville PD called the Warden’s Office to no avail,” the suit said.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Rex H. Elliott, the attorney representing Echelbarger’s family, accused the residential complex and the Pickaway County Dog Warden of neglect in the situation.

“The fact is that if the Dog Warden or Condo Association had done their jobs, Jo Ann Echelbarger would be alive today and her family would not have to live with this profound loss or the constant memory of the horrific nature in which she was killed,” Elliott said.

“These failures resulted in the death of a wonderful 73-year-old wife, mother and grandmother.”