French police focus on pet of pregnant woman mauled to death by dogs

A pregnant woman mauled to death by dogs while walking in woods in northern France may have been attacked by her own pet.

The body of Elisa Pilarski, 29, was found covered in bites in a forest near Retz, 55 miles (89 km) north-east of Paris, last November.

A postmortem concluded that Pilarski, who was six months pregnant, bled to death after bites to her arms, legs and head.

The case has caused anguish and controversy in France, with a pack of dogs out with a local hunt initially blamed for the attack.

Investigators took DNA and saliva samples from 67 dogs: five belonging to Pilarski and her partner, Christophe Ellul, and 62 from the local Rallye de la Passion hunt.

Police have opened a manslaughter investigation into “negligence, recklessness, inattention or carelessness” against persons unknown, a French legal procedure when the culprit has not yet been identified.

Now detectives are focusing their attention on Curtis, the couple’s two-year-old dog, which she was out walking when she died. The animal has shown violent behaviour since it was put into kennels while the inquiry is carried out.

In a statement on Tuesday, the local public prosecutor Frédéric Trinh said: “The autopsy report confirmed that Elisa Pilarski’s death was the result of haemorrhagic shock following multiple wounds, the characteristics of which suggest the action of one, or more likely several dogs with regard to the distribution of the wounds, their differences in morphology and depth.”

He added it was not possible to know how many animals had attacked Pilarski as there were “numerous bites that were mingled in the same area”.

Two veterinarians were asked to carry out a behavioural report on Curtis, who is being held in isolation, to see if they were able to match the bites on Pilarski’s body and to determine the breed of the dog or dogs involved.

According to their report, the dog had several “skin scrapes” on its muzzle and face.

Trinh said the animal had been involved in two incidents after the attack and that Curtis had “seized two people by the clothes during the behavioural analysis. Another person was bitten in the pound where the dog is kept”.

Ellul has insisted Curtis, who has been described as a cross greyhound whippet and Patterdale terrier, but is reported to be an American pitbull terrier – a breed banned in France – could not have killed his mistress. He said the dog’s subsequent aggression was due to the stress of being kept in isolation.

The hunt said none of its dogs present on the day had any injuries or traces of blood that could link them to the fatal attack.