Mom recalls moment she found daughter, 13, mauled to death by pack of 20 dogs with her hair ripped out

THE mother of a 13-year-old girl savaged to death by a pack of 20 dogs has recalled the moment she found her daughter dead.

Speaking to The Sun, Marissa Jones, 42, described her horror after finding Lyssa Rose Upshaw "in the foetal position with her skin torn through to the bone."

Lyssa, who loved to draw, fish and bike ride, had gone for a walk before dinner near her family's home in Navajo Nation land in Arizona in May.

Mom-of-three Marissa said: "At first I thought she had fallen off the hill. 

"But then I saw she was in the foetal position. Her skin had been torn through to the bone. Her hair was ripped out.

"I began screaming at the top of my lungs. I grabbed her hand.  I started praying. 

"I could not believe she was gone. I could not stop thinking about how she would have been scared and she was alone."

Lyssa suffered extensive injuries consistent with dog teeth marks, her clothes were torn, and she was covered in dirt, according to the autopsy.

Her death was recorded as accidental by the medical examiner’s office in Coconino County. 

'SEEKING JUSTICE'

But mum Marissa now wants the dog owners to be held criminally responsible.

She said: "The owners of these dogs have treated myself and my daughter as if we are no one.

"I am angry. I want to see them charged, I want to see them in jail so they know what it feels like to be taken away from their kids like my child has been taken away from me.

"If you cannot be responsible for your dogs then you should not have them.

"All of those dogs had evidence of my daughter's blood and tissue on them."

There have been a handful of deaths blamed on dog packs in the Navajo Nation in recent years; numerous others have been injured. 

The tribe's animal control laws do not hold dog owners responsible for deaths.

DANGEROUS DOGS

Marissa said she had seen the dogs "with blood on them" shortly before finding her daughter dead.

She said: "I didn't think anything of it.

"I was worried but my train of thought was going towards kidnap. I also thought she might have called a friend and was with them.

"I did not think she had been attacked by dogs."

She now accuses the dogs' owners of hiding a number of the dogs before 12 others were taken into custody.

Marissa told The Sun: "My niece had actually been cornered by the same dogs about a month before. 

"Other people have told me they had been attacked or almost attacked by them too."

POLICE INVESTIGATION

The incident has renewed discussion about how to hold people accountable for their pets on the reservation.

Navajo Police Department's Criminal Investigations Director Michael Henderson has said tribal charges are being considered in Upshaw’s death.

That comes as authorities gather more evidence and await results for specimens collected from the dogs that belonged to a neighbor.

The Sun has contacted the police department for comment.

"The case is pretty far from being closed, far from being just put aside as an accident or a civil matter or anything like that," Henderson said.

"We’re still very aggressively pursuing to understand the case to the extent to where if there are any criminal elements attached to what happened."

The FBI is conducting some of the lab testing.

'HARD TO BEAR'

Henderson said he has spoken with federal prosecutors whose initial response was that the case is not one that could be charged under a limited set of crimes for which the federal government has jurisdiction on tribal land.

Tribes have concurrent jurisdiction but often seek federal charges because they carry much stiffer penalties than under tribal law.

The maximum time in jail that the Navajo Nation could impose for any crime, regardless of the severity, is one year.

Esther Winne, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Arizona, couldn’t say whether Upshaw’s case has been referred to federal prosecutors. The FBI did not respond to a message from the AP.

Marissa said: "She [Lyssa] really loved drawing, anime, fishing and bike riding.

"We are trying hard to live the best we can.

"It's hard for me to bear that she is not here. She was my baby girl, the one we did everything for."