ST. LOUIS — Melvina Moore met her true love, Dennis Moore later in life.
"We had a wonderful wedding, and I asked him 'I never had a wedding before,' and he said 'I'm going to give it to you,' and he did, he did," Melvina Moore said.
Their blended families came together in the Penrose neighborhood in north St. Louis in 2016.
"I mean, to take in a woman with seven kids, just think about it. This was a lot for him, because he ain't have nothing but three kids," she said.
He, a retired landscaper known in the neighborhood for helping the elderly cut their grass, always checked on his wife when she worked the night shift at a nursing home.
"Throughout the night he always call me, like 10:30 p.m. well, sweetheart I'm about to go to sleep, then he'll call me again at 3:00 a.m. when he gets up to use the restroom and then at 5 a.m. he'll call me. None of them calls went through," she said.
Last Saturday night, she knew something was wrong. The police answered the phone the next morning.
"I called him at 9:00 a.m., that's when the police charged his phone up and I was the first caller and they asked me well who are you and I told them and they said do you stay at this address and I said yes, they said we can't tell you over the phone," Moore said.
St. Louis Police found Dennis Moore's body lying in an alley on San Francisco Avenue, about two blocks away from his home.
He was attacked by dogs.
"The dogs ate him up to the point where his body was decayed, they can't show me his body. They didn't eat his head up," Moore said.
A 92-year-old taking out the trash that night was also attacked and taken to the hospital. Animal Control took three dogs who matched the description into custody.
"Pit bulls are not bad dogs, it's what you put in them and you are raising vicious dogs to attack human beings no you need to pay for this," she said. "My opinion they was fed blood, meat, ate my husband up like wolves."
Moore is still in shock, as she now tries to find the money to plan her husband's funeral.
"I don't know how to move on. I take it one day at a time. I got a good support system, but I don't know how to move on," Moore said.
St. Louis Animal Control tells us three dogs were seized and are being housed at the shelter relating to the investigation.
1,617 service requests were made to the Citizens' Service Bureau for stray dogs, dogs on the loose, leash law or dangerous dogs in the city since July 1, 2021.
A GoFundMe has been started to help with funeral costs. A visitation and funeral will be held at Fresh Wind Ministry on Bartmer Avenue on Aug. 3. Visitation will be held from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. with a funeral service immediately to follow.