Elderly Whitley woman found dead Tuesday, partially eaten by dogs

A concerned neighbor made a gruesome discovery Tuesday afternoon finding a 68-year-old woman dead inside her home in Northern Whitley County and her body either partially decomposed over a period of several days or possibly eaten by her pets.

Whitley County Deputy Coroner Jerry Elliott pronounced 68-year-old Sylvia Monhollen dead about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday at her home on Little Spruce Creek Road.

So far no preliminary cause of death has been determined and an autopsy was scheduled for  Wednesday at the state medical examiner’s office in Frankfort.

The exact circumstances of Monhollen’s death remain unclear.

“Right now all we can release is she had been partially eaten by dogs,” said Whitley County Sheriff Colan Harrell, whose officers are helping investigate the case.

“Right now we think she died of natural causes but we will continue to investigate it.”

Whitley County Coroner Andy Croley disagrees with Harrell’s findings about the animals partially eating the victim or reports that her remains were half eaten.

Croley said that due to length of time the victim had been dead, the condition of her body could have been caused by decomposition instead of the three dogs inside the home eating her.

At this point authorities simply can’t say for certain, Croley said.

“It very well could be a natural cause of death,” Croley added. “To say she was half-eaten is incorrect.”

A neighbor, who hadn’t seen Monhollen in five days, found her Tuesday afternoon. Another neighbor said it had been four days since she had seen the victim, Elliott noted.

The victim had been living in a converted storage building off Little Spruce Creek Road, Harrell said.

Authorities found three dogs inside the building with her and eight to 12 dogs outside.

Croley said that there were many types of dogs there.

Harrell said he doesn’t know for certain if the outside dogs belonged to Monhollen.

Whitley County Animal Control took possession of all the dogs.

No foul play is suspected at this point, Harrell said.

Whitley County Sheriff’s Lt. Millard Root and Deputy Joe Prewitt are investigating the case along with the Whitley County Coroner’s Office.

Whitley County Animal Control and Oak Grove Volunteer Fire Department assisted at the scene.