Couple's Dogs Killed Mom, Cops Say

Sept. 19, 2005 — -- When an 87-year-old Marion, Ind., wheelchair-bound woman was viciously attacked by dogs in her daughter's home, the younger woman told police stray dogs had entered the house and mauled her mother.

But investigators now say that story is a lie, and the daughter and her husband are set to go on trial today, accused of negligence resulting in serious bodily injury, two counts of obstruction of justice and false informing in what turned out to be a fatal attack, when the elderly victim died two weeks after the mauling.

They could each face from six to 20 years in prison if convicted of neglect, the most serious of the charges.

Linda Kitchen told investigators she was working in the backyard on May 1 when she heard a commotion in the home. She said she found her mother, Julia Beck, who was attached to an oxygen machine, being attacked by two dogs. Kitchen said she ran off the dogs and called 911, police said.

Police said Linda and Michael Kitchen told them a stray Rottweiler and another dog had somehow wandered into the house through an open front door. Police searched for the dogs, could not find them, and eventually concluded that it was the Kitchens' own dogs that had mauled the woman.

The Kitchens were arrested on May 5, Marion police Deputy Chief David Day said. The dogs were placed in an animal shelter, Day said.

Beck died two weeks after the attack, and an autopsy determined the cause of death to be loss of blood and trauma from dog bites.

Murder charges were initially considered, but Grant County Prosecutor James Luttrull said it did not appear there was a basis for more than the neglect and obstruction of justice charges.

"There could be a murder charge if a case could be made," he said. "The neglect charge is a very serious charge. I am not inclined to believe that anyone intentionally or recklessly caused this death."

The couple allegedly destroyed evidence, including clothing Beck was wearing and dog feces, according to court documents.

ABC News affiliate WRTV-TV in Indianapolis contributed to this report.