A pack of dogs attacked and killed a teenage girl who was returning to retrieve her purse at a home in South Knox.

According to Knox News, 19-year-Old Adrieanna O'Shea was returning to the house of the witness to retrieve her purse that she had left the night before when she was “mauled” by five dogs on August 23. Witness Darlene Schultz-Scott told authorities that she even heard the cheerleader screaming “help me!” as the animals attacked her.

She also saw the dogs tossing the teen “in the air and dragged away toward a wooden area.”

Photo: Pixabay

Schultz-Scott, who happened to be O'Shea's aunt, confirmed the death of her niece through a post on her Facebook page.

“It's hard to believe you're gone, Adrieanna. I am so proud of you for fighting so hard, and I know you were just too tired to keep fighting,” she said.

Schultz-Scott added that O'Shea was her “birthday twin” and that she will never forget the teen's “beautiful face, corky sense of humor and full of so much energy!”

The New York Post meanwhile said that deputies from the Knox County Sheriff's Office arrived at the scene and found O'Shea “unconscious” and had bite wounds all over her body.

“The dogs had torn off her clothes, and she was covered in blood and debris,” detailed Knox News.

Likewise, the article pointed that O'Shea “had jumped a small fence” in an attempt to flee from the dogs.

Another source described the canines a Mastiff, a Rottweiler-Labrador mix, two Mastiff-Labrador mixes and a pit bull.

One was killed by a responding deputy when the dog charged at him, while the four were taken to the Young-Williams Animal Center.

The animals were owned by a married couple who lived in a house adjacent to where O'Shea had left her purse. Their son on the other hand, “lives in one of the mobile homes on the property.”

The owners claimed that the dogs were contained by an electric fence, although a deputy noted that the wire was not buried.

One of the owners even told the deputies that the dogs “were doing their jobs.”

It is still unclear on how the dogs had escaped from the yard, while authorities have yet to determine whether criminal charges will be filed against the owners.