Indiana pit bull attack double deaths & Oklahoma case leave big questions

Both cases involve “proximate cause”;  Oklahoma case involves death of key witness in pending Missouri case 

           HUNTINGBURG,  Indiana;  TUSKAHOMA,  Oklahoma––Four-year-old Evelynn Luz Lopez,  daughter of Gina Flores and Alberto Lopez of Huntingburg,  Indiana,  and her aunt,  Oliva “Oli” Mora Regalado,  53,  on April 14, 2025 became the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth U.S. dog attack victims of the year,  of whom at least 21 died in the violent presence of pit bulls.

Pit bull advocates may dispute that both Evelynn Luz Lopez and Oliva Mora Regalado were pit bull victims.

What “medical emergency” means

Specified the Huntingburg Police Department in an April 16,  2025 media release,  issued after completion of an autopsy,  “Police have determined that Oliva suffered a medical emergency that occurred from a preexisting medical condition while inside the residence.”

In police and coroner’s lingo,  however,  this typically means a heart attack,  stroke,  or epileptic seizure,  any of which may be triggered by extreme stress,  such as being confronted by the six pit bulls and a “poodle mix,”  possibly a cockapoo,  whom first responders found at the scene.

Such stress would almost certainly be heightened by the circumstance of trying to protect a four-year-old from six pit bulls and a “poodle mix.”

Continued the Huntingburg Police Department,  “After this occurred,  and for unknown reasons,  police believe that dog(s) inside the residence then attacked Evelynn,  who was the only other person inside the residence.  The juvenile succumbed to the injuries caused by the dog attack.”

“All dogs were euthanized on scene”

Concluded the Huntingburg Police Department media release,  “For the safety of everyone involved and the preservation of evidence,  all dogs were sedated and then euthanized on scene.  The dogs were then transported to the Southern Indiana Purdue Agriculture Center for laboratory testing.  At this time no criminal charges will be filed.”

“When Gina Flores asked her aunt to watch her young daughter,  she never would have thought it would be the last time she saw either of them alive,”  wrote Sonia Gugliara for The Daily Mail.  Flores was returning to pick up her child when she made the heartbreaking discovery,  police told The Daily Mail.”

Whose pit bulls & “poodle mix”?

But neither the Huntingburg Police Department,  family members,  nor neighbors have answered several huge questions emerging from the double fatality,  beginning with whose pit bulls and “poodle mix” were involved?

Were any of the pit bulls from a litter born at 107 North Geiger Street,  scene of the double fatality?

Some online commenters alleged the residents were backyard pit bull breeders,  or were involved in pit bull rescue,  but offered no evidence of that.  ANIMALS 24-7,  in three days of intensive searching,  found nothing to confirm either allegation.

Several family members have posed for photos with pit bulls and a poodle mix,  and live in Huntingburg,  but apparently live at different addresses from 107 North Geiger Street.   The two nearest addresses of pit bull owners in the family appear to be seven and nine blocks away,  respectively.

Who actually lived at the address?

How did the pit bulls and “poodle mix” who killed Evelynn Luz Lopez and Oliva Mora Regalado get inside?  Were they normally allowed indoors,  or were they usually kept outdoors,  where Google Earth images offer substantial evidence of their presence?

Who actually lived at 107 North Geiger Street?

Other than the obvious,  that Oliva Mora Regalado was babysitting Evelynn Luz Lopez at 107 North Geiger Street,  why were the victims at the residence?

Available public records suggest neither victim lived there;  Regalado,  though with many relatives in Huntingburg,  is listed as a longtime resident of Waukesha,  Wisconsin.

Listed owners were blocks away

107 North Geiger Street is listed,  however,  as the residence of Regalado’s sister Lorena Mora and her husband Rene Mora from February 2005 to June 2012.

The Dubois County Herald on May 22, 2020 reported that both Rene and Lorena Mora were home at 107 North Geiger Street when the Huntingburg Volunteer Fire Department responded to a 7:54 a.m. fire there.

More recently,  Rene and Lorena Mora are listed as living at the addresses seven and nine blocks away,  but 107 North Geiger Street is not listed as having been sold since 2005.

Cheri Ann “Cat” Taylor

Equally mysterious is the February 27,  2025 dog attack death of Cheri Ann “Cat” Taylor,  44,  in  Tuskahoma,  Oklahoma,  an unincorporated community just north of the Choctaw Reservation.

The dogs and dogs’ owner have not been identified in public records.

“Cat was simply walking home when she was savagely attacked by a neighbor’s vicious dogs. She fought bravely for her life,  but ultimately succumbed to her injuries,  alone and scared,”  recounted a friend,  Lisa Duncan,  in a GoFundMe posting.

“Evidence has been collected from the scene,  interviews have been conducted,  and we are waiting on the medical examiner’s report.  We will release information at the earliest opportunity. Please understand this is an ongoing investigation,”  said the Pushmataha County Sheriff’s Office the following day.

Foster care sex abuse case witness

The attack,  not previously mentioned by mass media,  came to wider notice on April 10,  2025,  when Chris Hayes of Fox 2 television news in St. Louis,  Missouri,  reported that “A foster care sex abuse case has taken a chilling turn with the unusual death of a key witness.

“The case involves Ronald Graham,  62,  who faces 13 [charges of having committed] sex crimes from when he was a foster father,”  Hayes explained.  “He was charged in Lincoln County in 2022 for alleged crimes while fostering dozens of children with Vicki Graham,  who is now his ex-wife.

“Vicki recently learned that one of those alleged victims just died where she was living in Oklahoma,”  Hayes continued.

Said Vicki Graham,  “She got mauled by two dogs.  Nobody is in jail for it.  The people still have their dogs,  so this girl has been through a lot,  all of her life.  If anybody needs justice,  she does.”

What “no cause of death released” means

Updated the Pushmataha County Sheriff’s Office,  “As of April 15,  2025 we are still waiting on the report from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation,  who took over the case.  There has been no cause of death released.”

What that tends to mean,  like the euphemism “medical emergency” used to describe the death of Oliva Mora Regalado,  is that while the dog attack was the proximate cause of death,  the immediate cause might technically have been something other than injuries actually inflicted by dog bite.

Making such a determination often requires forensic toxicology testing to discern possible effects of drugs and alcohol.  This typically takes eight to 12 weeks.

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