Ohio grandmother’s family files lawsuit after fatal pit bull attack

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…