ANAHUAC — The horrific death struck some people as strange. One day after 59-year-old caregiver Christine Rollins was found dead in a yard, with portions of her legs gnawed away, the Chambers County sheriff said a medical examiner determined feral hogs had killed her.

“We had suspected that,” Sheriff Brian Hawthorne said Nov. 25.

Such an attack was practically unheard of and drew national attention. People were used to feral hogs in this rural part of Texas, and they knew the animals usually ran when confronted. But for a hog to kill someone is so exceedingly rare that some struggled to believe it.

As people continued to talk, an alternative theory emerged. Rollins, who took care of an elderly woman, died in front of the client’s home. The woman and her husband had five dogs, one of which previously bit a worker.

Was it possible the dogs caused her death?

It made more sense to some. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 349,962 non-fatal dog bites seen in emergency departments in 2017. A dog bit the sheriff recently as he campaigned for re-election.

No evidence suggested dogs attacked in this case. It certainly showed a hog (or hogs) got to Rollins at some point. But nothing ruled out another animal could have been involved — and one small dog was observed with blood on its snout.

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“We don’t know the complete picture here,” said John Mayer, a hog attack expert consulted by the county on the case. “We don’t know all the circumstances.”

Among those dissatisfied with the official story was the victim’s 40-year-old daughter, LaSonthia Sandles. Yes, a dog attack gave her reason to sue. But she thought it also seemed more likely. Mayer’s research found only four fatal hog attacks ever reported in the United States.

“I didn’t believe it,” Sandles said of the official explanation that hogs were responsible, “because I’ve heard stories about the dog in the house.”

‘Be careful’

Rollins lived near the small city of Liberty. Some mornings, she helped a blind woman. On evenings and alternating weekend days, she helped Louise Laskoskie at her home 30 miles away.

Laskoskie and her husband, George Delbert, had a Labrador trained for duck hunting, and four small dogs, resembling corgis or terriers, the sheriff said. Rollins helped feed them.

On July 29, a neighbor called to report the Lab bit someone, according to county records. The dog was quarantined for 10 days as state law requires. A vet determined it didn’t have rabies.

The injury was minor, says Wesley Richey, the sheriff’s senior officer for animal services. Richey, who wore muddied rubber boots and a cowboy hat with his uniform, could decide whether a dog should be deemed legally dangerous.

Cases like that don’t usually lead to taking the dog away permanently. He and the sheriff figured it was natural for a dog to protect where it lives. That’s often why people have them.

So the dog was returned to the older couple’s home, concerning Sandles. She worried about how well Delbert could control his dog as he aged.

“Well, mama, all I can say is be careful,” Sandles recalled telling Rollins. “I really think it’s time for you to find another job.”

Laskoskie’s son, Bubba, reached by phone, declined an interview on the family’s behalf. He denied the dogs could have done it.

“It’s been a nightmare,” his son said. “We’ve never seen nothing like this our whole life.”

Gruesome attack

On the Sunday she died, Rollins, who became a caregiver after her mother had a stroke, was scheduled to work at the couple’s home from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sandles said. The sun rose at 6:51 a.m.

The pair live on a large property off a state highway outside Anahuac, a swampy area about 50 miles east of Houston known for alligators and birds.

Both the couple worked previously for the sheriff’s office. She became an assistant office manager in 1978, and he a jailer in 1989. They retired from county work in 2000.

Sheriff Hawthorne said Tuesday he did not know of their past employment.

Laskoskie’s husband found Rollins in the yard, according to the sheriff’s office report. His son called authorities at 7:35 a.m.

At 7:43 a.m., sheriff’s Cpl. Braeden Boznango arrived to find Rollins’ body 6 feet from her Chrysler and 5 feet from the front of the Laskoskies’ house.

She was 5 feet 1 and weighed 131 pounds. The hood of the car was still warm.

Rollins was found on her back. Her blue shirt and jacket were pushed up, as if she had been dragged feet-first. Her pants and shoes were off. Her calves looked eaten.

The dogs barked. They “exhibited territorial aggression,” Boznango wrote, and did not back down when commanded. One looked like it had blood on its snout.

(Boznango said he noted this not to imply the dogs did it but because he tries to document all facts.)

The dogs stood around Rollins’ body when Laskoskie’s husband found her, according to the report. Boznango asked him to contain the animals, and the elderly man put them in the house.

Rollins’ daughter, who was planning a Christmas pajama party for her mom’s 60th birthday, planned a funeral.

Blaming the hogs

Nothing added up.

Yes, one dog had blood on it, but it was small, and the sheriff thinks it would have been bloodier if it were involved in Rollins’ death.

Investigators saw no canine bites. They did see punctures that looked to be caused by tusks. They noticed fresh hog rooting in the yard.

Chambers County’s hog problem was worsening, Richey said.

It’s an issue the region faces: A man in Atascocita said a hog chased his 14-year-old this month, and a man in Montgomery County said one went for his dogs. Residents in a senior community in The Woodlands expressed fear walking at night in their community after Rollins’ death.

Hogs do kill people, usually when feeling threatened, said Mayer, a researcher at Savannah River National Laboratory.

There were, however, a handful of attacks where the hog seemed to act as predator, Mayer says. Hogs were also known to feed on corpses.

The autopsy report, completed Feb. 4, listed the cause of death as bleeding from a feral hog assault. Pathologist Selly Rivers of Forensic Medical Management Services of Texas described punctures 3 inches deep.

Justice of the Peace Yale Devillier filed the death certificate Feb. 7. Devillier is a practiced hunter. Half a hog jaw sits in his shed. He said he would not have believed hogs did it if he hadn’t viewed the scene.

Richey set a trap on the Laskoskie property. He caught no hogs. The dogs returned home, where a new pen was built and “Beware of Dog” signs are posted.

Enduring mystery

Rollins’ daughter is seeking justice in the case, but no one may ever know how the attack happened.

Did dogs scare the feral hogs? Did dogs attack Rollins first, and then hogs move in?

Capt. John Miller, who oversees the sheriff’s criminal investigations, is awaiting results of a test that will check for hog and dog DNA to close the case.

Miller’s theory is that hogs rounded the corner of the house and found her between house and car, making them feel trapped.

Injuries show Rollins was charged while standing, he said. They also show she was likely attacked by more than just a boar — and it is unusual for a boar to be with other pigs. The sheriff believes Rollins fought back.

“It is one of those things,” Miller said, “that you sit there, and you scratch your head, and you say, ‘It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen.’”

emily.foxhall@chron.com

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