COCOA, Florida – Two pit-bull terriers known for terrorizing their neighborhood viciously mauled and dragged the body of a Florida woman down the street, leaving her husband saying “he can never get that image out of my mind.”
“I saw the silhouette of the two dogs dragging my wife down the road, off into the grass in front of the truck down there,” Donnell Smith told WESH-TV.
Jodi Cowan, 50, was killed Tuesday when her neighbor’s bloodthirsty dogs attacked her on Blue Bonnet Drive in Brevard County.
“I pulled my knife out, you know, just swinging with it one hand and holding the blood with the other, trying to stop her from bleeding,” Smith said.
Smith was eventually able to call 9-1-1, allowing Cowan to be airlifted to the hospital though she died from her injuries hours later.
“It was brutal. Seeing the same woman I’ve loved for the last 25-30 years just ripped apart by two animals was just … I’ll never get that image out of my mind,” Smith said.
WATCH:
FREAKING HORRIBLE!😡Woman Mauled and Killed By Neighbor’s Dogs in Brevard County😡
50-year-old woman, Jodi Cowan, was fatally mauled by two neighbor’s dogs in Brevard County near Cocoa, Florida. The attack, which occurred in the early hours of Tuesday, May 19, 2026, has prompted… pic.twitter.com/0cC3rGVQg2— American Crime Stories (@AmericanCrime01) May 21, 2026
Smith said he and others in the neighborhood had previously warned the Brevard sheriff’s office about the canines.
“I told them that she had those two pits that get out all the time and run the neighborhood and have been aggressive towards people, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Smith said. “My wife lost her life because of it.”
The case remains under active investigation, but Smith suspects what possibly happened.
“They must have been chasing our little dog, and she went to save her little dog to get him,” he said. “And then they switched their attention to her when she tried to get them off our little dog.”
“She was a great woman. She just loved people, loved dogs more than people, and for her to go out that way, it’s not right.”
The dogs are in the custody of animal control.
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