Medical examiners say no gator was involved. Meanwhile, an agency says its caseworkers visited the Citrus County home days before the attack.

By WILLIAM YARDLEY

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 16, 1999

INVERNESS -- The bite wounds that punctured 5-year-old Melissa Hunt's body and disfigured her face were inflicted by one or more of the four pit bullterriers she had been playing with behind her home, according to a preliminary autopsy report released Thursday.

Melissa, found Wednesday evening floating in a shallow, swampy cove in the Tsala Apopka lake chain, died from a combination of severe bites and drowning, the report said. Medical examiners dismissed the possibility that alligators had attacked the girl.

On Thursday, distraught relatives struggled to accept Melissa's death.

"She was the last of my grandchildren, the only one I'll ever have," Pansy Berlin, Melissa's grandmother, said as she sobbed at the door of her Inverness home.

Melissa Hunt , 5, had been playing with the four pit bullterriers without adult supervision. [Photo from WFTS-Ch. 28]

One of the suspected dogs now in impound. [Times photo: Steve Hasel]

Inside, Melissa's mother, Sandra Yates Hunt, 37, had been inconsolable all day.

Hunt was cooking dinner Wednesday when Melissa, initially mistaken for a toy doll, was discovered naked in the water, her ripped blue jeans on the banks.

If she cried for help, no one heard her. The girl had been playing with the dogs without supervision.

Seized dogs not known to bite

On Thursday, the Department of Children and Families notified the Citrus County Sheriff's Office that, in response to a complaint, department caseworkers had visited the home just days before the attack.

"We were advised of that just today, apparently, and I'm just not in a position" to disclose the nature of the visit, said sheriff's spokeswoman Gail Tierney.

Dogs are being held in separate cages at the Citrus County Animal Shelter. [Times photo: Steve Hasel]

She said the department did not request assistance from the Sheriff's Office.

"I don't know if that means they didn't find anything alarming or what," she said.

Investigations by Children and Families are confidential unless they lead to criminal charges, and none had been filed as of Thursday.

Tierney said Melissa's family members had been too distraught to undergo formal interviews with detectives. "The major focus today was trying to figure out what caused the wounds," she said.

Melissa shared the home with her mother and her mother's boyfriend, Claude Blount, 34.

It was Blount, the owner of dogs, who pulled Melissa from the water. "I thought it was a doll because we couldn't accept it," he said Thursday morning.

Having his dogs on the property brought comfort, he said, because the dogs would protect Melissa from the alligators that he and neighbors say regularly prowl the water.

"I kind of liked it," he said, struggling to believe his dogs could have killed Melissa. "Those dogs are so cool."

In the minutes after Melissa was discovered in waist-deep water, the dogs appeared docile and curious. They roamed the back yard for an hour while deputies investigated the scene. None appeared to have been in the water recently as they quietly approached people arriving at the house, staring calmly and sniffing pants legs.

It was nearly 8 p.m. when animal control officers loaded the dogs into a truck and drove them directly to the office of Charles Magill, a veterinarian in Crystal River. Magill administered vomit-inducing drugs to three of the dogs, two males and a female. The fourth dog was a puppy less than 3 months old. A 59-pound male had to be muzzled.

Experts at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will examine vomit and stool samples from each dog in hopes of determining which ones were involved in the attack.

An aerial view shows the property where 5-year-old Melissa Hunt was killed Wednesday. Melissa was found floating in the lake behind her home, her naked body ravaged with bite wounds. [Times photo: Steve Hasel]

At the Citrus County Animal Shelter on Thursday morning, the four dogs were secured in separate cages marked with signs bearing an image of a snarling dog and the words "Dangerous Dog" in red letters. One wagged its tail at a visitor. The others slowly turned their heads at passers-by.

Animal Control director Hank Baggett said the animals will remain at the shelter until the investigation is complete. "They're just ferocious dogs," Baggett said, referring to pit bulls in general. "Maybe the increased awareness (from the attack) will help other parents supervise their children."

Neighbors described Melissa as "a beautiful young girl."

Penny Sowerby, who recently moved away from the neighborhood, said Melissa often played at her house with her young son and daughter.

"We were probably the closest family in the neighborhood to her," said Sowerby, 37. "She spent all Memorial Day weekend with us, just doing everything that kids do. She'd color. They'd ride bikes, go skating."

Magill, the veterinarian, said Wednesday night was particularly difficult for him because he had lost a child of his own. "It's hard to describe the pain," he said. "I don't even know the people, but I prayed for them last night."

-- Times staff writers Jim Ross and Jorge Sanchez contributed to this report.

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