Michigan officials are claiming that the young woman below deliberately climbed into a pen of vicious dogs last week so the pack of pit bulls would maul her death.
Rebecca Hardy was “suicidal” and chose “to subject herself to this threat” as a result of her chronic depression and a recent eviction, Port Huron’s medical examiner announced Tuesday.
She didn’t immediately die during the predictable three-dog attack, but was transported with severe injuries to a nearby emergency room where she was later pronounced dead.
Hardy is survived by a toddler daughter and a fiancé who is disputing the ascribed manner of her death last Thursday evening.
Matthew Grattan told the Times Herald he won’t accept that his betrothed was intending “to hurt herself” when she inexplicably entered an enclosure where aggressive guard-dogs were known to be housed.
Toxicology tests on the deceased 22-year-old are still pending but, even if these do show Hardy was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, they aren’t expected to change the coroner’s ruling.
Her alleged suicide-by-dogs, while bizarre, is not the only case of someone employing a deadly animal to off themselves, instead of using a gun, a rope or a razor:
This autumn, for instance, 18-year-old Grant Thompson of Travis County Texas managed to successfully kill himself with a pet cobra.
The reptile enthusiast was suffering from “suicidal ideations” when he drove to a secluded area, opened the venomous snake’s travel cage, and provoked it to bite him multiple times on his arms and torso.
Eponymous Rox
Forensics
