COPS have been forced to release horrific details of how a young woman was mauled to death by her own DOGS - in a bid to end conspiracy theories that she was murdered.

Bethany Lynn Stephens, 22, was found dead after she was "eaten" by her two "big, strong and powerful dogs" last month near her home in Virginia.

4 Police says Bethany Stephens' was mauled to death by her two dogs

Her horrified father discovered the dogs guarding her body after she had been missing for two days.

The rumours over how she died have escalated so much that the County Sheriff James Agnew resorted to showing journalists photos of Bethany's dismembered body, with her right breast missing and part of her face eaten.

Cops have also released the results of postmortems on the dogs, which showed human hair akin to Bethany's in the animal's faeces.

But some in the community still believe the experienced dog trainer was not killed by her dogs with Bethany's employer saying she has had nearly 400 calls and texts asking her to speak out.

4 The experienced dog trainer was found with her two dogs standing guard over her

4 But some believe the dogs are not responsible for her death

Tori Trent, who had known both dogs since they were puppies, told WTVR: "They were both very passive dogs.

On Facebook, she called for "a true investigation" into what happened, writing "the dogs did not do this."

She said: "After speaking to a witness whom actually found the body and reading every article published about the event, things do not add up due to K9 behavior and instinct.

“I could extremely help this investigation simply speaking on K9 behavior, knowing these dogs, and knowing Bethany! So much exaggeration and lies — that I can prove!"

Sheriff releases grim new details about Bethany Lynn Stephens - Virginia woman mauled to death by her dogs

4 Sheriff James Agnew said it appears Bethany was killed by her two dogs whilst she was out walking them

But Sheriff Agnew said his team have ruled out a person considered to be a threat to Bethany, claiming that the police investigation had been complicated by a "high volume of misinformation" spreading on social media.

He confirmed Ms Stephens was found dead in a horrific blood-covered scene, and he ruled out suggestions that she could have been killed by wild animals.

Shockingly, the Sheriff announced that he and four other deputies witnessed the dogs eating Bethany's rib cage

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He said: "Let me cut right to the chase — the most important detail that we did not release because we were worried about the wellbeing of the family is that in the course of trying to capture the dogs, we turned and looked … I observed, as well as four other deputy sheriffs, the dogs eating the rib cage on the body."

He confirmed Ms Stephens was found dead in a horrific blood-covered scene, and he ruled out suggestions that she could have been killed by wild animals.

It took investigators eight hours to collect more than 60 pieces of evidence, according to reports.

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