‘Just couldn’t believe it;’ Dogs involved in deadly attack had violent history

PICKAWAY COUNTY, OHIO — More information is coming out about the aggressive history of the dogs involved in a deadly attack last week.

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As previously reported by News Center 7, a mother and son were arrested days after a 73-year-old Pickaway County woman died after being attacked by dogs.

Susan and Adam Withers were arrested on Monday and charged with involuntary manslaughter and failure to restrain a vicious dog in connection to the death of Jo Echelbarger, our news partner WBNS in Columbus reported.

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Kenzie Jones said her mom owns a condo in Ashville and rented it from her for several months. She noticed the aggressive nature of Withers’ dogs.

“It was extremely frustrating and ultimately the reason I had to move out,” she told WBNS.

Jones said when she would walk her dog, she noticed that Adam did not have a handle on the dogs.

“Both dogs were just out of control pulling him, he wasn’t able to control them, and they got off the leash,” Jones said.

She was stunned when news broke regarding the dog attack in her former neighborhood.

“I just couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that somebody had lost their life due to those dogs,” Jones told WBNS.

>>PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Mother, son charged in dog attack that killed Ohio woman

WBNS obtained court records and they showed that Adam Withers had four municipal filings against him related to the dogs. One incident involved Jones’ mom.

Her mom was walking her dog, Nemo when one of the Withers’ dogs got loose.

“The dog ran right out of the garage and immediately went towards my mom. It didn’t see her dog at the time, so it latched onto my mom, it pulled her down to the ground and started like ripping her arm open,” Jones said.

The dog noticed Nemo running away and went after him. Jones’ mom got to safety, but Nemo did not survive.

Jones told WBNS she does not understand why more was not done to remove the dogs from the home.

“I was disgusted, I was just in shock, I couldn’t believe more hadn’t been done to get the dogs out of the home prior to this incident,” she said.

The village of Ashville has an ordinance on dogs running at large and dangerous dogs, but it’s up to the courts to decide to remove them, WBNS said.

We will update this story.

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