The woman who owns the pit bulls that mauled a 40-year-old woman to death will be charged, but it is unclear what charges she will face.

Some of the dogs involved in the weekend attack had mauled before and their owner, Jacqueline McCuen, is already facing a misdemeanor charge from one of those incidents, the sheriff's department confirmed.

Video

Neighbor Talks About How Pit Bulls Attacked Her During Walk

The Elbert County Sheriff held a press conference Tuesday to say that he will meet with the district attorney to decide what charges will be filed.

McCuen is already facing misdemeanor charges after her dogs threatened a resident and the new charges authorities are considering range from a misdemeanor to felony negligent homicide.

As part of the sheriff's investigation, deputies are going door to door in the neighborhood, trying to find out which other neighbors have had problems with the pit bulls.

Neighbors told 7NEWS that the dogs have terrorized the neighborhood for years.

Diana Nichols said she was attacked last April when she went out for a walk around her neighborhood. She said her bite wounds and a gash to the bone on her left leg took two months to heal. She said she is traumatized by the mauling and to this day cannot watch a movie with big dogs in it.

"I hit one (of the dogs) on the head. I hit another one in the nose, (and that one) lunged and got me in the thigh, and that was about the point where the gentlemen of the house called them off," Nichols told 7NEWS.

She claims McCuen is not a responsible dog owner.

"She never did admit that they were her dogs, but I have a small claims judge who says so and convincing evidence that they were her dogs ... I think every dog she has should be destroyed," Nichols said.

Nichols said if the dogs had been put down after they attacked her, the woman who was killed Sunday, Jennifer Brooke, might still be alive.

"I've been in the fire service for 37 years and I've never seen a person chewed up like this," said Rattlesnake Fire District Chief Dale Goetz, referring to Brooke.

After the incident with Nichols, a dog was impounded, and a deputy sheriff gave McCuen a summons for having a "vicious animal." But the case was dismissed because "there is currently no valid Elbert County ordinance which is applicable," according to a June 16 motion by Arapahoe Deputy District Attorney Derry Rice.

The decision in that case was reviewed and now the case has been reopened, District Attorney Jim Peters said on Monday.

McCuen (pictured, left) also had been cited for alleged animal violations in 2002 when she lived in Aurora. The citations included having unlicensed dogs, having too many dogs and letting dogs run loose.

Grover Henderson said the dogs chased his wife, Linda, into their home on Oct. 4.

"A few weeks earlier they had come to our house and bared their teeth at me, and I called McCuen and told her I would shoot them if they came back," he said.

"The people in the area had their own sort of emergency phone network to warn each other if the dogs were loose before they would go out," said Goetz.

After killing Brooke Sunday morning, three dogs also attacked her ranch partner, Bjorn Osmunsen, 24, and their neighbor Lynn Baker.

"They were monsters. And they don't run away. They come at you. Even when you are shooting at them," Baker said.

The dogs were shot and killed by Baker's 16-year-old son and sheriff's deputies.

One of the three pit bulls that was gunned down just had a litter of puppies, 7NEWS reported. Those puppies and two other adult pit bulls are being kept in a barn and are being allowed to stay with McCuen.

"There apparently has not been a problem with the other two dogs and if there hasn't been a problem, what authority do we have?" Elbert County Sheriff Bill Frangis said.

The pit bulls that were killed will be inspected on Tuesday by an expert to see if the dogs have been involved in or bred for fighting. Afterwards, the dogs will be transported and tested for rabies, authorities said.

The Elbert County Sheriff's Department confirmed that on March 21, there was a report of a fight between two dogs but there were no charges filed in the case. Four days later, a deputy was dispatched to the same area, but the reporting party refused to pursue charges against the dog's owners and said they would handle the matter in civil court. Then on Sept. 5, there was a report of pit bulls on another person's property. The reporting person refused to pursue charges and an agreement was made between them and the dog owner, authorities said.

According to the latest statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 27 people who died as a result of dog bite attacks during 1997 and 1998, 67 percent involved an attack by one dog, 19 percent involved an attack by two dogs and 15 percent involved an attack by three dogs.

During that same period, rottweilers were involved in 38 percent of the fatal attacks and pit bulls were involved in 22 percent.