85-year-old Jamaican woman mauled to death by neighbor’s dogs in UK

An elderly Jamaican-born woman was mauled to death by two of her neighbour’s dogs at her home in Rowley Regis in the West Midlands, United Kingdom on Friday.

The deceased has been identified as 85-year-old Lucille Downer.

Her family, in a statement, said Downer was born in Jamaica, and migrated to the UK in her early 20s.

According to a report in the UK Express newspaper, about 3:20 pm on Friday, the elderly woman was in her garden when two dogs from a neighbouring property attacked her.

Neighbours reported that they saw the dogs dragging her around the garden by her neck.

The police and relatives of the woman were alerted.

“Our officers attended, by which point the dogs had returned through a hole in the fence to the adjacent property and then, unfortunately, despite the best efforts of medical professionals, that lady died at the scene,” Superintendent Phil Asquith of West Midlands Police disclosed at a press conference on Saturday.

According to him, the dogs were tranquilised shortly after the attack, and transported to a kennel where tests will be done to determine their breed.

A 43-year-old man who is the owner of the dogs, was arrested on Friday.

He has subsequently been released on bail without charge, pending further inquiries, while officers await results of a “forensic post-mortem to determine” Downer’s cause of death”, Asquith said.

Meanwhile, the elderly women’s family said that since arriving in the UK, Rowley Regis has always been at her home, the UK Express newspaper reported.

“Lucille was a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who spent her working years as a cook at Bromford House Care Home in West Bromwich,” the family’s statement indicated.

“… her family will miss her dearly,” it added.