A firefighter paramedic was killed by a massive Mastiff she had just adopted and was found by her husband — lying at the bottom of the basement stairs.
Forty-four-year-old Dawn Brown of Big Rock, Illinois, died from severe bite wounds to her neck, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Her husband, also a volunteer firefighter, came home on Monday to the gruesome discovery. Compounding the tragedy, emergency personnel in one of her units responded to the scene, the Tribune writes:
“To pronounce one of your own dead is probably one of the hardest things we have to do,” said Capt. Debra Raymond of the Big Rock Fire Protection District.
The Mastiff is a large breed.
Local Sheriff’s Lt. Pat Gengler told the Daily Mail that the 140-pound dog was a formidable beast:
It was an extremely muscular-looking dog with a large head. It looked big, strong.
The couple had taken in the Mastiff from a family member just a week prior. They owned two other dogs, a boxer and a pit bull. Local animal control took custody of all three animals.