Kate-Lynn M. Logel

The Denver Post, May 9, 2005

Fruita girl dies in dog attack

A new family pet attacked and fatally injured a 7-year-old girl in Fruita on Saturday night, according to police.

Donald Page, the family's landlord for the past year, cried as he described the incident Sunday.

"She was such a loving child," he said, rummaging around for a card the girl made him on Friday. "It says here, 'Happy Friends Day to Don. I love you. By Kate-Lynn."'

Page was indoors Saturday evening when a girl he identified as Kate-Lynn Logel and her mother, Shellamina Logel, were in the back with the family's two new dogs.

A family in DeBeque gave the Logels two Alaskan malamutes about three weeks ago.  The dogs had played with children before, he said, and were good dogs.

"Shelly went on in to go to the bathroom, and when she went back to the back door, she saw Ice, the male dog, with blood on his face.  She panicked and thought the dog got hurt, and she called me," said Page, who rents two rooms in his three-bedroom home to the Logel family.

When the two stepped into the backyard, they saw Kate-Lynn on the ground.

"The dog had bit her on ... both sides of the neck," Page said. "She bled to death. ... There just was no blood left in her."

Kate-Lynn died of her wounds at St. Mary's Hospital in nearby Grand Junction on Saturday evening.

Fruita police would not confirm the names of the victim or her family, nor discuss the case in detail, saying it is still under investigation.

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