DECEMBER 23--A heated argument over beer turned violent Friday night when a Minnesota woman bit off her husband’s ear, according to police.

When cops arrived at the St. Cloud home of Jamie Elrod, 37, and her spouse, they spotted blood and broken dishes in the kitchen. Then, in a bedroom, officers discovered “blood spattered on the wall and a piece of an ear on the ground.”

Investigators, a probable cause statement notes, concluded that “there appeared to be a physical fight” during which the victim’s ear was “torn off” by Elrod.

The victim told police that the couple’s “argument was over beer.” Court records offer no further insight into the nature of the duo’s beer dispute, which occurred after they returned home from a bar.

Elrod’s husband told cops that his wife had been drinking, adding that she had consumed a “Hairy Buffalo,” a vodka/rum concoction. The victim said that Elrod “gets out of hand when she has those.”

The victim said that Elrod was “yelling at him over beer” when she “went off at him” in their bedroom. When asked what happened to her husband’s ear, Elrod--who appeared intoxicated--“stated she had no idea.”

However, after being taken into custody, Elrod made several jail phone calls during which she admitted to “biting off” her husband’s ear. During calls placed to her mother, Elrod said that when her husband “reached for her, she bit his ear,” according to the probable cause statement.

When her husband “pulled back,” Elrod explained to her mother, she “ripped his ear off.” While the severed ear was recovered by police, it is unknown whether the victim underwent reattachment surgery.

Pictured above, Elrod was charged with felony assault, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. She was released from custody yesterday on $30,000 bail. Elrod, court records show, is also facing prosecution for an October drunk driving arrest. (2 pages)