Missing Texas man eaten by own dogs

The bone pieces found on the man’s overgrown trailer-and-shed property were suspicious. But the truth didn’t hit the sheriff ’s deputies until they inspected some dog feces and found what looked like human hair and bits of clothes.

Freddie Mack had been eaten by his only companions at his rural home near Venus, Texas: his 18 dogs.

“Our initial reaction was kind of disbelief, because there was nothing left,” Johnson County Sheriff Adam King said.

The senior investigators whom the sheriff’s office consulted with had never heard of pets consuming an entire person before, he said. The final confirmation came Tuesday when detectives learned that medical examiners had identified the few remnants deputies collected as Mack’s.

It’s not clear whether the large mutts killed the 57-year-old or devoured him after he died of his “serious medical conditions,” King said.

Mack first came to the sheriff’s attention in May when a family member said he had not heard from his reclusive relative in weeks.

Declaring Mack missing, deputies began interviewing family and neighbors, asking for information on social media, contacting hospitals and jails.

A breakthrough came May 15 when a deputy found the first, small piece of bone during another property search. More bone parts followed. With the dogs seized and out of the way, authorities discovered dog feces with hair, more bone and fabric, the sheriff ’s office said.

As for the dogs, 13 have been killed because of their aggression and the mounting evidence that they killed their owner. Two had already been killed by other dogs. The other three are still around. “They were friendly,” King said.