Kentucky woman sentenced to 20 years for telling pit bull to savage man, 55, to death

A Kentucky woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder after urging her fighting pit bull to maul a man as she sat on top of him and attacked him.

Melissa Wolke, 40, plead guilty to the murder of 55-year-old car repairman Donald Abner with whom she lived in Conway, Kentucky, at the time of the vicious murder.

Police were called at around 3am on January 10, 2020, by a neighbor who heard fighting and arrived to find Wolke on top of Abner, beating him as her pit bull bit his head and face.

The neighbor told police they they heard her telling the dog: 'Good boy, get him'.

State troopers said when they arrived to the house on Pug Lane in Rockcastle County, just off US Highway 25, they were forced to shoot the dog dead.

Later she broke down in an interview with police while repeatedly saying: 'Oh my God, I went redneck on him'. 

Coroners who conducted an autopsy on Abner found that he died at the scene from asphyxiation. He also had a broken bone in his neck and bite marks on his face and head. 

Melissa Wolke, 40, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder after urging her fighting pit bull to maul a man as they fought outside their home in rural Kentucky

Abner worked as an autobody repairman before he was attacked by Wolke and her dog in 2020. He was 55 when he died

Kentucky State Police Detective Ryan Loudermilk testified in court that a neighbor of Wolke said he heard party sounds a few hours before the attack.

He also said he heard gunshots in the weeks before but did not know what was being shot. 

The neighbor said he recorded the attack on his phone but deleted the video because it made him 'sick to watch' - officers were unable to recover the footage.

Police said officers arrived at the scene in Conway, Kentucky, and found Melissa Wolke attacking her neighbor Donald Abner

The home in Rockcastle County, Kentucky, where Donald Abner, 55, was killed by a pit bull

'She appeared to have blood on her hands and feet and had a large clump of hair in her hands that was consistent with the victim's hair,' police said in a report at the time.

The dog had bitten the man several times in the face and the head, Trooper Scottie Pennington told WDKY.

He said they were left with no option but to shoot the dog since Wolke would not tell it to back down.

The court heard that Wolke had a history of alcohol abuse and she attempted to give it up for some time. She suggested she had a history of blacking out when drinking. 

When investigators searched the house after the attack they found no signs of fighting but only an empty liquor bottle.