The missing man in Texas was eaten by his only companions-his 18 dogs

Freddie Mack had been eaten by his only companions in his rural home near Venus in Texas: his 18 dogs

It is not clear whether the large dogs killed the 57-year-old or ate him after his death

The pieces of bone found on the property covered with the trailer and shed were suspicious. But the truth did not strike the sheriff's deputies until they inspected a dog's droppings and discovered what looked like human hair and pieces of clothing.

Freddie Mack had been eaten by his only companions in his rural home near Venus, Texas: his 18 dogs.

"Our initial reaction was a kind of disbelief because there was nothing left," Johnson County Sheriff Adam King told The Washington Post.

It's amazing that animals eat human remains, " said Johnson.

But the whole body, the clothes and everything?

Senior investigators consulted by the sheriff's office had never heard of a pet eating an entire person, he said. The final confirmation came on Tuesday when the detectives learned that the medical examiners had identified the few remains of MPs collected as those of Mack.

It is not clear whether the large mutinous dogs killed or devoured the 57-year-old after the death of his "serious health condition," King said. The sheriff's department doesn't release Mack's medical information.

Mack first caught the sheriff's attention in May when a family member said he hadn't heard from his loved ones in weeks. Mack kept to himself, says King, his only reliable human contact coming in about every two weeks when the family picked him up to take him to the store.

When asked about Mack, relatives had tried to search his property, but the dogs were aggressive and kept them from entering, according to the sheriff's office. MEPs also had difficulty in overtaking animals. They managed to distract them and even examined them with a drone when the Dogs held them for another visit - but they could not locate Mack.

After stating that Mack was missing, the MPs interviewed family members and neighbours, asking them to find out about social media and contacting hospitals and prisons.

A breakthrough occurred on 15 May when a member of Parliament found the first small bone during another search. More bone parts followed. Authorities discovered dog droppings with hair, more bone and tissue, which was the only outfit that Mack was supposed to wear, the sheriff's office said. Soon, MPs found one of Mack's two pairs of shoes in the area where the dogs were written.

"It was another' Aha ' moment for us, "King said. "That's when we started to realize."

The implications were bloody but not unprecedented. A 2017 National Geographic article revealed dozens of cases of pets eating their deceased owners, detailed in 20 years of forensic science journals. A 2015 study of more than 60 cases of dogs mutilating dead dogs found that the animals tended to go after the nose and mouth, then to a lesser extent the arms and hands.

Earlier this year, a South Carolina woman died after her two combinations of boxers mistreated her in front of her mobil-home - "eating her alive," as a witness who called 911 said.

But Mack's case is distinguished by the thoroughness with which the dogs ate him. His family members were informed of the findings of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office that the remains were those of Mack, based on a genetic match of the family, the sheriff's office said.

In the case of the dogs, 13 were killed as a result of their assault and increasing evidence of the killing of their owner. Two had already been killed by other dogs.