Dog pack kills US couple

A retired professor and his wife whose mutilated bodies were found along a rural Georgia road were apparently killed in an attack by nearly a dozen dogs, authorities said.

Preliminary autopsy results from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation showed Sherry Schweder, 65, probably died of injuries received in a dog attack, Oglethorpe County Sheriff Mike Smith said.

Autopsy results for her husband, Lothar Karl Schweder, 77, were not yet available, but Sheriff Smith said it was likely that he was also attacked by the dogs.

Sheriff Smith said officials were going to round up at least 11 dogs seen in the area where the couple’s bodies were found on Saturday morning by five passers-by.

It was not immediately clear whether the mixed-breed dogs were feral or pets.

Stephanie Shain, a spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the US, said it was “uncommon” for people to be bitten to death by dogs.

The bodies were found along a dirt road near the couple’s home in Lexington and had been there for at least 24 hours before they were found, said county coroner James Mathews.

A family friend told the Athens Banner-Herald that Mr Schweder was a retired professor who had taught German at the University of Georgia, about 20 miles away in Athens.

Mrs Schweder was a bibliographer at the university’s library, where she had worked since 1974, selecting books and journals for the school’s humanities collection.