By Ashitha Nagesh From Metro.co.uk

A woman was mauled to death by her own pit bulls, who then stood guard over her bloodied body.

Bethany Lynn Stephens was taking her dogs out for a walk in Goochland, in the US state of Virginia, when they attacked her.

Police said the 22-year-old suffered horrific head and throat injuries.

Bethany’s dad called the emergency services at 8pm on Thursday after she hadn’t returned from walking the dogs.

He went looking around the area where she often walked the dogs, and found the disturbing scene.

Local news station WTVR reported that he found her dogs in the woods, appearing to be ‘guarding’ Bethany’s body.

Sheriff’s deputies arrived and spent around an hour to 90 minutes trying to catch the pit bulls, before Bethany’s body was taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office.

An initial report from the MEO indicated that the dogs were behind the killing. ‘It appeared the attack was a violent attack initiated by the victims’ dogs while the victim was out for a walk with the dogs,’ Sheriff Agnew said.

‘The victim had defensive wounds on her hands and arms trying to keep the dogs away from her, which would be consistent with being attacked while she was still alive.’

IMAGES:

The sheriff said the dogs looked as though they had been ‘bred for fighting’ (Picture: Facebook)

Bethany Lynn Stephens was horrifically mauled to death by her own dogs (Picture: Facebook)

For more on this story go to: http://metro.co.uk/2017/12/17/woman-mauled-death-pit-bulls-taking-walk-7165902/?ito=cbshare