Joslyn Stinchcomb, 15, suffered critical injuries and a crushed trachea in pit bull attack.
Medical Condition Updates
Winder, GA - Last Friday, Joslyn Stinchcomb, 15-years old, was walking in her neighborhood near Bowman Mill Road NE when two pit bulls belonging to a neighbor escaped their owner's property and viciously attacked her. The dogs attacked her head, neck and body; they crushed her trachea, ripped off her scalp and an ear. Joslyn continues to undergo multiple reconstructive surgeries and has been transferred to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where long-term treatment is planned.
Among the horrific injuries she endured, doctors continue to try to reconstruct her badly damaged trachea. Doctors placed a stint in her airway to keep it open, and hopefully allow her to breath through it. Currently, she is able to breath due to having a tracheotomy procedure. The girl's grandmother, Sandra Stinchcomb, who is her legal guardian, and her aunt, Charity Stinchcomb Montgomery, provide regular updates to a Facebook group that our nonprofit has joined.
On August 6, Sandra provided another update. "It has been just over 6 days since Joslyn was attacked. Since then she has been in surgery for nearly 24 hours. The majority of this time has been spent to reconstruct and restore her a viable airway," she said. Sandra also described Joslyn's injuries as being worse than a horror movie. "Nothing I have ever seen, in EMT school or on any horror movie is as disturbing and graphic as seeing what these demons did to Joslyn."
"Then came the pictures of the skull. Nothing could have prepared me for that and no words can describe just how horrific they are. With this, we are being told it could be several months before she will be ready to see if they can try to get skin grafts to take. Right now Paul and I are just broken." - Sandra Stinchcomb, 08/06/2020
The family was originally told the tracheotomy could come out in about a month. However, doctors are unsure now how long it could be. Doctors "are saying it could be months, years, or possibly not ever that her tracheotomy can be removed. They are not certain if she will ever talk again and even if she does, her voice won’t be the same." Sandra asks people to continue to pray for Joslyn’s recovery and pray for her medical teams. This "is so far from being over," she said.
In an earlier update, Charity said that Joslyn will never have hair again. "As we have previously shared, Joslyn’s trachea was crushed and lacerated. She had surgery to repair it but it will take weeks to heal." The dogs "also grabbed her hair hard enough to pull her entire scalp off. She only has a small portion of skin left on her head. At this moment she does not have any hair left. She will never have her hair again." It will be over a year before those discussions can even begin.
Classic City News is also following the family's private Facebook group and is providing regular updates. Please check there for additional updates about Joslyn's current medical condition.
Joslyn Stinchcomb, 15, seen in hospital after being attacked by two pit bulls in Barrow County.
Owner of the Pit Bulls
Fox 5 Atlanta recently spoke to Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith, whose deputies responded to the horrific attack scene. "She's been in and out of induced commas, has a lot of damage to her spine and her throat and she's also got some plastic surgery issues as well. She's a fighter, but she's got a long road to recovery," Sheriff Smith said. "She had grit and asphalt under her fingernails where she was pulling away from these dogs and they were pulling back at her."
When deputies arrived at the scene, they found the teenager lying facedown against a cement curb, while one pit bull was grabbing her neck and the other was biting the girl's head, Classic City News reports. Deputies shot one dog in the head. That dog fled and the other released its grip and also fled. Deputies tracked the dogs back to the owner's home. Alexandria Torregrossa, 29-years old, was arrested for reckless conduct after she returned home, according to a police report.
"The reason she was charged with reckless conduct was it was determined the dogs were not properly secured and ran out the back door of the house and viciously attacked the victim," Sheriff Smith said. In the State of Georgia, reckless conduct is a misdemeanor that carries up to 12 months in jail and a $1,000 fine. In the State of Texas, this exact same off-property attack that nearly resulted in fatal injuries would be a felony and the owner would face up to 10 years in jail.
Barrow County Animal Control euthanized both dogs. The owner's Facebook page shows two large pit bulls, a male and female. Both were altered in 2016, according to the owner. The male, Capone, was altered first, because "he had been acting out more than ever," Torregrossa wrote. Sterilizing a dog does not alter breed-specific behavior and in this case, it did not reduce the need to roam either. The only benefit is that neither of these pit bulls can continue to reproduce.
Torregrossa is yet another exhausted cliché pit bull owner. Prior to her privatizing her Facebook photographs, we were able to capture several. In a January 2019 post, she states: "It's their world I'm just living in it." Torregrossa is admitting in this statement that she does not own her pit bulls -- her pit bulls own her. Torregrossa has little control over her dogs. In another exhausted cliché, Torregrossa had no clue why her puppies in 2015 were so fat. Folks, that's a belly full of worms.
The two pit bulls, a male and female, that violently attacked a teenager in Winder, Georgia.
Alexandria Torregrossa's two "Gottiline" pit bulls inflicted catastrophic damage on Joslyn.
Related articles:
05/15/20: 2020 Dog Bite Fatality: Suspected Fatal Pit Bull Mauling in Crawford County, Georgia
05/10/20: 2020 Dog Bite Fatality: Doctor Killed by Suspected Roaming Dogs in Lyons, Georgia
04/28/20: Reward for Information Leading to Arrest and Indictment of Pit Bull Owner in Atlanta
Seeing this girl breaks my heart. I have a daughter this age. To think of this girl’s life being altered in such a devestating way because some low-life felt she had the “right” to own pit bulls is infuriating. I hope she gets prosecuted, but no matter how long she is kept in jail, she will never face even a fraction of the pain and loss this young girl and her family faces now. I’m glad this is making news. I’m glad there are pictures of the dogs. I hope it wakes some people up to the reality of the damage that can be done. I hope that even one person reconsiders getting that pit puppy, or one family looks at their “sweet little pibble” and suddenly realizes that, yes, even THEIR dog could do this. How I just wish that it had been the owner who CHOSE THOSE DOGS that is laying in that bed facing a future of surgery after surgery and not that young girl.
If only that woman had owned beagles or another non violent dog breed this would never have happened. Pit bulls are dangerous and should not be allowed in any residential areas. What an atrocity!
Do u happen too know what attorney her family is using. No I’m not a lawyer or any other form. Just had pit attack on winder also. No One will touch case the dogs have more rights then people !!!!!
A large segment of humanity is psychopathologically addicted to animals that are obviously potentially dangerous and unpredictable. In addition, this disease is also a spiritual disease.
The law allows dangerous animal owners to say that they did not have cause to think that their animal could have been dangerous. When potentially dangerous canines are declared to be potentially dangerous animals, then each and every dog attack case can be criminally prosecuted to conviction and prison sentence.
This type of case, child pedestrian life destroyed, is the kind of case that makes me want to sign over my property and escape to Heaven now. This child victim came a tenth of a second and a fraction of an inch from being there now. Would she have been infinity better off if that happened?
If I recall correctly, it is about 40 people admitted to the hospital per day, just in the USA, from dog bite traumatic injury. This case is just one of forty hospital admissions from dog attack for the past 24 hours in America. If every half hour, the worst of 500 dog bites per 30 minutes in the USA made national news, maybe in our lifetime some effective legislative action would occur?
What is the Number One extreme threat to people who live in seemingly, nice, normal neighborhoods in America? This will continue to happen, as long as our nations’ policy makers are spiritually bankrupt and psychiatricly diseased. This will continue to happen as long as Evil has legal precedence over Good. Here comes a true statement: This event is not caused by lack of knowledge or lack of thinking. This event is caused by lack of Love.
I fully believe that the owners of these dogs only love themselves. They love the way having the dog makes them feel, whether it’s because having a pit bull makes them feel like a “rescue angel,” or a thug, or someone who stands up for the misunderstood. There are myriad reasons they own them, but I don’t really think it is because they actually love the dogs themselves (although they claim to do so). The dogs are a statement to them, something they can boast about, something to make them look socially aware and heroic. It all goes back to self-love only. They clearly don’t love their neighbor, or their neighbor’s child, or their neighbor’s pet. Because they only love themselves, the only thing which will get through to them is something that has the potential to affect their comfort… jail time, financial responsibility, loss of their home. Increased punishments and fines will speak the only language they really understand, the language of self.
Some twit is trending on YouTube because he just speed adopted out…an entire shelter worth of dogs.
The selfishness of that act, astonished me and I’m not easily astonished. Why in the name of the Doggess would the shelter allow this publicity stunt?
Dogs are a *huge* commitment in terms of care, training, attention, grooming etc.
It’s a tragedy in the making.
This is so tragic that as far as this lovely youth is concerned, words fail me.
They don’t fail me regarding the owner of this dog.
I’m going to take a bit of a different tack then my esteemed friends here.
My honest assessment of many of these pitbull owners is that they are deathly afraid of their own dogs, completely overwhelmed and drowning in guilt about their inability to control their dogs. When they go to their “pitbull friends” for guidance, they’re shilled a line of horse hockey that they just aren’t loving their furry menaces, enough. Or that love will cure genetics.
Some come out of the conversations feeling that they have zero options because the shame is choking off the obvious solutions (and yes, I’ve spoken with enough owners of horrible dogs to know that often, they really are at wits’ end long before a tragedy happens)
They know their dogs are not safe, they’re not safe, their family is not safe and their community is not safe.
None of their idiot pitball loving supporters will tell them the truth. That sometimes the best option is to sand up, admit their pitbull experiment is a complete failure and *put the dogs, down*.
I’ve never met a pitbull owner who has had a deep connection with a proper dog. Most don’t know, and will never know, what it’s like to enjoy a dog without worrying about the day it goes off it’s rocker and mangles someone.
They’re so locked in the cycle of being abused by their own animals and conned by their pitbull nutter friends that it borders on some kind of pathology.
While I’m not sure it’s a spirtual disease Richard, I will say that owners of horrible dogs (pitbulls or no) are frequently ashamed by their inability to control their dogs’ behavior. And they’re often given advice that just makes the dog’s behavior *worse* because they don’t know enough to know bad training advice when they see it on YouTube or wherever they’re looking for information.
These dogs were allowed to reproduce…how horrible. Is this owner going to contact each and every buyer of those dogs to warn them of the horrific behavior that their parents displayed? I somehow doubt it. All those puppies sold are basically ticking time bombs. That degree of aggression is something that was bred into these dogs. It’s genetic. Non-bloodsport breeds don’t suddenly snap and scalp people and crush their throats.
Those injuries are something you’d expect in someone attacked by a grizzly bear or a lion. That poor young lady will forever have terrible scars and damage (psychological and physical) from such a severe attack.
In 2016, the owner talks about taking the male to a dog park but not being able to let him run because everyone is scared of him. She believes this is other peoples’ problem because they are afraid not her problem because her dog is vicious. Here we are 4 years later and a teen girl has had the trajectory of her life altered forever.
When I look at Alexandria’s FB photos, I see a person who is very into looking tough, dominant, and masculine. Very much into the appearance. The dogs are props in that image. I have no pity for the situation Alexandria got him/her/theirself into. This person will skate significant criminal charges but will hopefully be held civily responsible. I would hope there would be some way to have wages or other financial assistance from this person could be garnished.
Christy, I’m in absolute agreement that there needs to be severe repercussions to dog owners, *well publicized*, on what will happen if they continue to shirk their responsibilities around the actions of their dogs. And I don’t mean uncollectable lawsuits instituted by the victims, either.
When there were severe repercussions a few decades ago and nobody was crying for “the poor doggos”, dog trainers, police etc. could warn dog owners of the consequences if they did not either fix, contain or euthanize dogs that exhibited aggressive behaviors.
Also it helps to stress that *if you do not fix this dog, it will be killed* for those owners who don’t care about other people but are whinging about their dog’s victimhood.
One of the big problems I see is all the sales pitching around badly behaved dogs while lovely dogs are shunted aside.
Dog parks are another sh*tshow all around. The people with problem dogs drive off the sociable dogs until many of them become nothing more than cage matches. There’s zero accountability or oversight. Small dogs and gentle dogs are often mangled with zero consequences to the owners of the aggressive dogs. And the aggressive dog owners always blame the other dogs instead of stopping the behaviors of the agressors.
In this case, as you’ve pointed out, there were enough indicators publicly pronounced by Alexandria herself that she should have taken precautions since and clearly, did not–to apply some criminal law, I should hope.
That won’t help Joslyn but a good criminal trouncing of the dog owner may discourage others from future willful blindness around the dangers of pitbull ownership and poor dog management and prevent some of the future tragedies.
A young girl on the cusp of womanhood; a musician and a girl who loved to walk her neighborhood. She had a radiant smile and a wholesome look about her. She lives with her grandparents who are her guardians. There’s always a story behind the story, isn’t there? I can see they’re doing a wonderful job with her. That’s love in action. (I’m a grandparent to a 15-year girl old who has autism. I’m also her caregiver.) There’s a lot love in Joslyn’s story. But the news will only give us the headlines. Viewers will scratch their heads, offer prayers and support. I’ve worked as a broadcast journalist for 35 years, and there’s always a story after the story. Joslyn and her family will have to live it. But unlike someone who was disfigured in a car accident or from cancer, they will be silenced if they speak out about what happened to their precious grandchild. Because of a psychotic-blame-the-victim-dog-worship culture, they’ll be quickly shutdown. If they speak out, they’ll be ridiculed and threatened. Even having a dead child as a result of a dog attack provides no immunity from these ruthless, cruel people without an ounce of compassion. Today, on another site devoted to educating the few who will listen…yet another baby has died. A little boy (7 months old) killed by another kind of grandmother…one who neglected to protect her grandchild from her “pet” mauler. Joslyn’s grandparents did the best they could to protect her, but there’s a pit pandemic going on with no end in sight.
This is beyond awful. I really have no words. I cannot believe what this girl is going through. She may never speak again, may never grow hair again, may never live a normal life again, all because of a couple of mutants that should have been outlawed decades ago. Seeing this especially infuriates me, because I’ve been seeing that stupid pit bulls and paroles show STILL being advertised on my TV stations! How are shows like this still allowed? Why is animal planet allowing these landsharks to have shows dedicated to them while they’re putting more and more people in hospitals every day? That show and others like it need to be removed from airing. All pit propaganda in the media is responsible for this attack. The owner of these dogs even looks has that same thug image. This is unacceptable and it needs to be stopped. I hope that woman ends up jailed for a long time.
And for dear Joslyn, I hope she will be able to recover and get all the support she needs.
You’ve struck another one of my pet peeves there too, Baily. Pitbulls and Parolees needs to be yanked off the air, post haste. The dog handling skills in it are atrocious. Pitbulls jumping up and slurping…just ack. It’s shilling a load of blatherskite about how trainable and lovable pitbulls, are.
At least in Tiger King the documentarians showed you the horrifying results of one of the staff, getting their arm ripped off by a Big Cat.
The result of all this pitbull lobbying and UNreality scripted TV is more and more dead children and seniors. People get these dogs with a complete misunderstanding of what they’re getting.
Notice there’s no show called, “Murderous Fur Machines” which might be closer to the actual statistics of owning these dogs.
That show should open with the warning, “Don’t do this at home, folks.”
I ended up messaging animal planet after making my post here doing exactly that. I told them that show and any others that promote pits need to be taken off the network! I’m about 99.99% sure nothing will come from my email, but I wanted to do something. It’s ridiculous to see that show on the air while people are getting torn apart by those beasts day by day.
I remember that Kara Hartrich’s parents were also influnced by that show before she was killed by their “family pits” in 2014. That show is still nothing but trouble and needs to be gone.
Good on ya, Bailey. At least you can say, “I tried.”
What I’d like to see is medical professionals and animal control officials calling up and telling them what’s wrong with their show and the results they are seeing and the horrors they have to clean up, after.
Or at least making public statements about boycotting the show.
And then the media covering it. We can dream.
Did Josyln’s own mother (who is not in her life as her primary caretaker) actually start her own fake GoFundMe?
https://www.gofundme.com/f/joslyn-stinchcomb-healing-fund
May God bless you! Baby.. in my prayers every day you are going to make it God IS GOOD!!! There is no words how much this touch my ❤️!!
This is so sad. One billion dollars could not begin to make this poor girl whole. Everything about the he/she that owned the murder weapons screams JUDGEMENT PROOF.
Did anyone else catch that the pit that took either a 9mm or .40 cal hollow point to the head at close range still had to be euthanized at the vet’s office?
Also did you happen to see the dog used in the pic for the “Counties seeing increase in dog bites since beginning of COVID-19 pandemic” story immediately below the attack story?
“The breed of peace” yet again. All the impounded dogs looked like pits or rots. No chihuahuas somehow. Their must be some shadowy organization that started out as a death cult that spends millions each year to keep all the chihuahua attacks out of the news.
The owner of these two monsters should go to prison…..for a long, long time. She was well aware of the “temperament” of her pets. I am glad that the police shot one dog and that the other one was put down. That should be what always happens when dogs attack and mutilate like these two pit bulls did.
I have relatives in the general region of this attack and the sad truth is that they did not hear this story—it’s presence in the news was either so small or short-lived that the general public never heard it. It is truly a horrific story and a public safety issue that should be a focal point of news in the local area (at the very least).
So many of these pit bull attacks are making either brief or no appearance in the media. In my area, a man was viciously attacked by a loose pit bull while running in his own neighborhood. His arms were shredded “like spaghetti” amidst other injuries. Unbelievably, the story NEVER made our local news…we only heard about it directly from a co-worker, whose spouse was the PA in ER attending to the pit bull injury. She said it was one of the most horrific injuries she’s ever seen.
And THAT is not newsworthy? The normal, law-abiding citizens need to know that apparently exercising in our own neighborhoods is now unsafe because so many people choose tiger-like dogs that are only semi-domesticated at best and who are often loose and out of control.
I feel truly blessed to have found this website so that at least I am now aware of the danger. We have changed our exercise routines due to the presence of aggressive pit bulls along three of our prior running routes. Last week, an unleashed pit bull on the beach was eyeing my husband during his run. They are truly everywhere and it is scary. We should not continue to see horrific attacks on innocents like Josyln—but how can the laws change if the media keeps suppressing these pit bull stories?
Thanks again for your work, Colleen…and let’s hope more and more people become aware of the problem and clamor to at least regulate these monsters in our midst…and hold their owners liable.
Thanks, Beth, for your insightful comments. Yes, I thought I was alone in my views of these monsters until I found Colleen’s site. As a broadcast journalist, I produced a segment on talk show more than 20 years ago about dangerous dogs. My guests were parents from the Midwest whose little boy was killed by two Rottweilers. He was waiting for the school bus when they tore him to shreds. (There were children on the bus who witnessed the attack.) We had an expert talk about dangerous dogs and he named pit bulls. We were inundated by angry viewers. It was the first time I heard the expression, “They’ll lick you to death.” Since that time, pits now lead the pack of killers. The national news will only cover “sexy” spectacular stories like the young woman who was killed and devoured by her two beloved pits. I’ve tried to get more media coverage to no avail. Meanwhile, not only are people dying, but as you said, we are not safe in our own neighborhoods to walk or run or anything. Our culture of dog worship has embraced the poor-misunderstood-pit-bull propaganda and is responsible for so much heartbreak and trauma.
Alexandria Torregrossa should do hard time.Five years without possibility of parole. She is absolute filth.
I am absolutely devastated and appalled for this poor young girl, such a lovely, innocent young lady… scalped! wtf? what sort of ‘dog’ does this? Pitbulls (or petbulls) have out worn their welcome, they need to be bred out of existence, same with all ‘bully’ breeds (the APBT is banned in Australia, but not the American Bulldog, same shit, if you ask me?) I cannot believe the lack of news coverage when a pitbull or pit-type mongrel mauls or kills a person in the US? it MUST be political because I have seen this happen before…sorry I can’t say what I really want to, I would like my comment posted! 😞 I really appreciate all of the regular commentators I see/read on this site, I am 100% agreeing with you guys, I am so sorry about your murderous dog ‘problem’ it just isn’t fair and it should not even be happening, take care my US allies, you people are in my heart xx
I had to stop reading the comments. I think there were 3 post before “actually small dogs like chihuahuas bite more” and “Most pit bulls are wonderful dogs”. If those 2 statements were true (they aren’t) what does that possibly have to do with this poor girl fighting for her life?
“Gee I was way more likely to have been nibbled on by a chihuahua, a bite that might not have broken the skin & would not have required stitches. I will be sure to keep that in mind if I leave this hospital alive.”
Have people gotten dumber?
Or were most people idiots all along but they didn’t have the internet to show off their stupidity?
Any time I make the mistake of reading the comments on nearly any newspaper or TV news page I have an intense desire to move to a private island, or since I can’t afford that, barricade myself in my basement for the rest of my days.
This news just in: girl who survived pitbull attack given parade: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wsbtv.com/news/local/barrow-county/15-year-old-who-survived-dog-attack-welcomed-home-with-parade/FFLMOLF5HBBMNJAYO757RG5ZYA/%3foutputType=amp
I contacted them via Facebook to give my condolences and how I would be outraged and angry …….
Well, I was told they don’t ” blame the breed ” .
I leave it at that .
SMH
I just read about Joslyn Stinchcomb yesterday, who was attacked by a pitbull 1.5 years ago in ATL. I thought about a campaign we can each do “Ban pitbulls by 2030 in the USA.”
I “just happened” to be approached by a city councilwoman and emailed by my US Senator yesterday. So I let both know my priorities.
BTW, both Jacqueline Durand and Joselyn Stinchcom have issues w their eyes area. I am including in my daily prayers now that their eyes are irrigated normally again. This sounds like it may be an issue for many victims of pitbull attacks.
I just saw the news from May that the dog owner was given probation and banned from owning pitbulls again (she still owns two dogs, one of them “mixed”, whatever that is).
The article went on and on about the family having forgiven the perpetrator because they’re Christian. I’m glad I’m not the victim of one of these attacks and I’m glad I’m not surrounded by family telling me how I’m supposed to feel about it based upon their religious indoctrination. The family allowed the plea bargain to probation supposedly to spare the victim the discomfort of a trial.
I shouldn’t have aired my anti-religious slant on the situation. It was inappropriately off topic. I’m sorry.
This is a well written update on Joslyn from her aunt:
https://www.classiccitynews.com/post/one-year-later-winder-girl-s-miraculous-journey-back-from-near-fatal-dog-attack