Two dogs are being credited with saving a woman's life from a pair of men who attempted to rob and rape her.

The West Columbia woman was in her home in South Carolina expecting a visit from family when someone knocked at her front door. Thinking it was her family she went to answer the door. Instead she saw two unknown men who then forced their way into her home and struck her with a blunt object, knocking her to the floor. One of the men said "knock her out" several times.

The victim told investigators that as one suspect looked for jewelry, the other tried to rape her. The man who assaulted her was stripping her but was slowed down by a cast on her broken foot. This was long enough for her two dogs - a Pit Bull and Great Pyrenees - to hear her screams and come to here defense.

The two dogs were behind a restraining gate in the woman's back bedroom. Hearing her cries for help, the two large dogs broke through the gate and rushed to her aid. They scared off the men and sent them running into the surrounding woods.

The woman said she owes her life to her protective dogs. Lexington County Sheriff James Metts agrees with the victim, believing the men might have killed her had her dogs not come to the rescue. "They not only saved this lady from being raped, which I think their intent was to do by taking her clothes off, but they may have even saved her life because as I indicated, one was hollering to the other one, 'Knock her out,'" Sheriff Metts told WISTV. He added, "As a matter of fact, I'm thinking about deputizing them and having them available help us with other people."

The Lexington County Sherriff's department is asking for the public's help in locating the suspects. The woman's home is located on Colony Park Lane in West Columbia. One suspect was described as an Hispanic male around 30 years old, with slick medium-length black hair and was called "Cabrone" by the other suspect. The second suspect is a black male with a bulky build between the ages of 30 and 40 years old, between 5'5" and 5'8", and weighing up to 180 pounds and wearing a grey sweater and faded blue jeans. A composite sketch was made of this suspect.

If you have any information about this case, you are asked to call Crimestoppers at 1-888-CRIME-SC.

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• Great Pyrenees
• Pit Bull
• crime
• burglar
• thief
• Lexington County
• West Columbia
• South Carolina
• sexual assault