Her Dog Killed 2 Women on 2 Separate Occasions. Soon, She’ll Learn Her Fate

An Alabama woman who was convicted after her dogs attacked and killed two women in 2022 — including a public health employee who was investigating the initial attack — is facing 41 years in prison if given the maximum sentence.

In November, Brandy Dowdy, 43, of Red Bay, was found guilty of one count of manslaughter, one count of criminally negligent homicide and two counts of violating Emily’s Law, which increases penalties for severe dog attacks, News 19, WAFF, and the Franklin County Times report.

In 2022, Summer Beard, 58, and Michele Sheeks, 44, were attacked by Dowdy’s dogs just days apart, and both died from their wounds.

Dowdy was found guilty of manslaughter in connection with Beard’s death.

In May 2022, Beard, a longtime Alabama Department of Health employee, was following up on the attack on Sheeks when she was attacked by the same pack of dogs.

“It is believed that Beard was attacked as she was attempting to contact the dog’s owner when she was killed by the dogs,” the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Previously, Sheeks had been walking along County Highway 11 in Red Bay on April 28, 2022, when she was attacked by the same dogs, the sheriff’s office said.

Hospitalized for months, Sheeks died of her injuries in July 2022.

Dowdy was found guilty of the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide in Sheeks’s death.

During her trial, Dowdy’s attorneys argued that she did not have sole ownership of the dogs that attacked the two women, ABC 33/40 reports.

Dowdy’s daughter, Abriana McMillian, testified that people often abandoned their dogs in the area where her mother lived and that her mother fed them, along with other animals, ABC 33/40 reports.

The lead investigator of the case testified that Dowdy did, in fact, own the dogs that were responsible for the fatal injuries, though he could not specify which dogs were involved, ABC 33/40 reports.

Dowdy’s attorneys have announced plans to appeal the verdict.

Dowdy was scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 6, 2026, but her attorney was unable to attend because of a medical emergency, the Franklin County Times reports.

She requested a new lawyer. Her sentencing is now scheduled for April 28.

After she was convicted, she was taken into custody as she awaits her sentencing.

She is currently undergoing treatment for leukemia, and the judge said that she could apply for release for that treatment later on, WHNT reports.

Beard, of Muscle Shoals, was an environmental supervisor in Franklin, Marion and Winston counties, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH.) She worked for the health department for nearly 17 years.

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“Summer was known to her coworkers as an exceptional person. She was a tremendous team worker and was loved by those who knew her,” Ryan Easterling, the director of the ADPH’s Health Media and Communications Division, said in a statement.

After the attack on his wife, Wesley Sheeks spent months at her hospital bedside in Jackson, Miss.

“Unfortunately, she never got the chance to leave that hospital,” he told News 19.

Dowdy’s attorney could not be reached for comment.