TORPY: An elderly woman was brutally mauled in DeKalb. Why did it happen?

She described the attack, and the aftermath, to family members:

They knocked her down and tore into her body as she covered up like one should to survive a bear attack — fetal position, hands and forearms protecting her neck and head.

Two large dogs chewed bone-deep into her arms and legs, tearing away chunks of flesh and her shirt. A third, smaller dog hovered, licking up the blood.

The dogs suddenly stopped and a man appeared. “You need an ambulance,” he told her.

Credit: Family

Credit: Family

She asked for help, but he started walking away. Being modest, even while grievously injured, Sparks asked for something to cover herself up.

“He stopped, pulled out a sweatshirt from his backpack” and tossed it to her, Sparks’ sister, Polly Stramm, told me. “Then he kept going.”

She knew it was life-and-death, that she might bleed out. She crawled and stumbled perhaps 500 feet to the front lawn of Roy Sparks, the twin brother of her late husband, Terry.

Roy was outside and called 911.

Terry and Roy Sparks were longtime high school football coaches in DeKalb and known for their twin rivalry. The brothers were also married to twins, Jane being one of them. They lived across the street from each other and were well-respected in the community.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution once did a fun feature about the familial interconnections.

Jane Sparks has endured at least four operations or procedures at Grady Memorial Hospital since the May 7 attack, her sister and niece said. She will remain there for weeks more to undergo skin grafts. She worries about the life-changing effect of the trauma.

“She‘s 79 but you’d think she‘s 50, she‘s so active, playing tennis and golf,” said her sister. “It hit her that this might impact her life going forward.”

DeKalb Animal Control captured the dogs the next day, officials said. They are being held at the shelter for rabies testing. It is unlikely they will be released. The two dogs biting her were described in a police report as German shepherd mixes.

The other dog, the blood licker, had an embedded chip that identified it as belonging to a Covington man. Police have joined the investigation but both agencies are largely mum.

The question remains: How did this happen?

Credit: Courtesy

Credit: Courtesy

It appears the property has been a long-festering problem, with signs that there could be even more to come.

The land, which was sold to a developer last fall, had a vacant house located deep on it and had become a home for vagrants. The county was informed of them numerous times, two neighbors and the developer told me.

Also, five neighbors said there were persistent problems with dogs on the property.

The developer, William Braswell, who wants to build 100-plus homes there, said he has tried unsuccessfully since January to demolish the house. DeKalb has been slow to issue a permit, he said.

Why is that? I asked.

“It’s just DeKalb,” he said.

Last week, following the attack, Braswell said he sent in crews without a permit to tear the house down.

“I just wanted to make it uninhabitable,” he said. “I want to make sure there‘s nowhere to live back there.”

County officials did not respond to questions about the attack or about the dog complaints.

Greg and Veronica Mosley live right behind the property. They heard a pack of dogs last month viciously attacking something.

“It was horrendous; it was a sound we had never heard before,” Greg Mosley said, adding, “It was like they were eating something.”

Neighbors Angie and Steve Ritz had heard barking for months. In April, they were on an evening stroll when three dogs charged off the property at them.

“They bolted at us aggressively and chased us across Norman Road,” he recalled. “There was a car coming and they stopped.”

They called animal control and said they met with an officer who told them he could not go on the land because it was private property and there was a gate (which anyone can walk around easily).

Mind you, the developer and neighbors say the dogs were with squatters who had no right to be there.

“I told him there were a lot of children walking from Jolly Elementary (two blocks away),” Steve Ritz said. “We voiced our concerns about something catastrophic happening.”

“Come to find out our worst nightmares came true,” he said, referring to the attack on Sparks. “And the county knew about” the dog complaints.

Several people say they have seen a person matching the description of the man who walked past Jane Sparks while she writhed in agony on the ground.

Credit: Police evidence

Credit: Police evidence

Neighbors have been monitoring the property closely and, weeks before the attack, one shot video of a skinny man with a backpack carrying a dog by the scruff of its neck. He was accompanied by another dog.

Sparks was shown a screenshot photo of that man by family members and believes it was the same person she saw after the attack.

Amondre Crosby, who lives across from the property, said he, too, has seen a man resembling that photo coming and going from the property. Crosby said the dogs come to greet the man at the front gate when he returns home each day.

Braswell, the developer, said there have been several squatters there this year, including a mom with kids.

He said earlier this year: “I got a call from a man saying his son was squatting there, that he‘s a drug addict — and he‘s armed. The police said I had to evict him. If I did, he‘d just go around the block and come back.”

Braswell said he kicked him out and he returned. That’s why, he said, he was so keen to knock down the house.

On a Saturday, three days after the attack, police called Braswell to come and address his latest squatter. He, too, said that man resembled the man in the photo with the dogs.

“I’m positive they were his dogs,” the developer said, adding there was evidence dogs had been at the home.

Police and Braswell told the man he had to leave and they were demolishing the home. Three days later, when crews came to tear down the house, they had to wake him up and send him on his way.

Meanwhile, Ms. Sparks will continue to endure more surgeries.