Jemma Hart, 45, was found dead at her home in Swindon after a call to police by concerned neighbours who hadn’t seen the mother-of-two and dog lover for several weeks
A woman whose body was partially eaten by her pet dachshunds has been pictured as a neighbour claimed one of the dogs was “vicious”.
Jemma Hart, 45, was found dead on January 29, last year when her neighbours raised concerns to the police after not seeing her for around a month, an inquest heard.
Coroner Ian Singleton described how the mother-of-two was a dog lover and lived for her two pets in Swindon, during an inquest at Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner’s Court on Friday, March 7.
The body of Ms Hart was found dead by police with one of her dogs also dead while the other was in a “distressed condition” and the inquest was told that the pets had been feeding off her remains.
“She’d had dogs in the past but in 2022 she got a dachshund called Frankie and a year later she got another one called Millie,” said her son. “Her house backed onto Lydiard Park where she regularly walked her dogs, and the dogs were her life.”
A neighbour identified only as Lorraine has told how Ms Hart intended to breed her dogs and sell the puppies, while adding that one of the animals was aggressive. “Jemma told me she was going to breed her dachshunds and sell the puppies,” the 66-year-old told the Mail Online. “The brown one, Milly, was still a puppy [and] was a lovely dog. But the black one, Frankie, was vicious. He didn’t like people or other dogs.”
Despite Jemma’s passion for pets, she faced several health and mobility issues which caused her to stop working and she struggled with physical pain and insomnia. Neighbours said they regularly passed Jemma walking her dogs, and could often hear the dogs in her back garden, so they became concerned when a text message to Jemma was left unopened and one dog was heard whimpering.
And Lorraine also reportedly said: “Jemma had mental health problems and was a troubled soul. It was the dogs that caused me to go round there. I knocked on the door because I could hear the dogs barking but there was no answer. So, I tried the key she had given me but I couldn’t unlock the door because there was a key on the inside of the lock. I went home and I ummed and ahhed. Then I thought I’ll ask the police to make a welfare check. And that’s when they found her.’
At the inquest Coroner Singleton said: “On January 29, Wiltshire Police was contacted by Jemma’s neighbours with concerns that they hadn’t seen her since Christmas. Officers went to her home and found her deceased in the living room. One of her dogs was also found dead at the scene and the other was in a distressed condition.”
A police officer who attended the scene said that the dogs had been eating her after her death. No other obvious injuries were found and the death was not believed to be suspicious. Jemma had lived in the property for around 10 years and despite being known to Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health team, she had not had contact with them for many years.
A post-mortem report carried out by toxicologist Peter Street confirmed that the Swindon woman had died from suicide. Coroner Singleton concluded: “Jemma lived alone with her two dogs in Swindon and she was estranged from her family. Jemma was found in her home with injuries caused by dogs after she died. Her death has been recorded as suicide.”
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