A reclusive Texas man last seen by his family in April was eaten by his own dogs — a large pack of aggressive canines that left behind just five bone fragments of their owner, authorities said Wednesday.
Relatives of Freddie Mack, 57, told the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in early May that they had not heard from him since April 19, saying that his 18 medium and large dogs of mixed breeds prevented them from searching his property near Venus.
Deputies later returned to Mack’s residence and found a small piece of bone after earlier searches — including one involving a drone — did not turn up any sign of Mack, who lived alone, according to Johnson County Sheriff Adam King.
Deputies then found more bone fragments and other pieces of evidence during subsequent searches, including animal feces containing suspected human hair and clothing that matched the only set of clothing Mack was known to wear.
“As far as we could tell, he only had human contact twice a month when his relatives would pick him up and take him to the store,” King told The Post on Wednesday. “He pretty much lived in a compound surrounded by mean dogs.”
A medical examiner’s office then confirmed Tuesday through DNA testing that two of the bone fragments found belonged to Mack, whose relatives were immediately notified of the macabre confirmation.
But due to several existing medical conditions, it’s unclear whether Mack died from health issues before being entirely consumed by his pets or if the animals killed him, King said.
“We’ll never know, but either way it’s horrible,” the sheriff continued.
Deputies eventually seized 16 dogs from Mack’s property and obtained an order to euthanize 13 of them. Two of the original 18 dogs were killed by other dogs at Mack’s home, King said.
“My hope was that [detectives] were wrong, that he was going to show up somewhere,” King said. “Of course, that didn’t happen. It was so crazy that I didn’t want to believe it.”