The devastated mother of a 12-day-old baby boy tragically mauled to death by the family dog on Sunday had rushed into the street screaming ‘I never will forgive myself’ in the moments after the horrific attack.
Elon was lying in his Moses basket in a downstairs room at the family home when the huge Chow Chow bounded inside after escaping from his pen in the back garden.
He grabbed the infant, who weighted less than seven pounds, in his jaws as his father and the baby’s brother battled in vain to save him.
The child’s mother Abigail Ellis, 27, was upstairs in the bathroom but her fiancé Stephen Joynes, 35, and young son witnessed the appalling attack at the terraced house in Woodlands on the outskirts of Doncaster, South Yorkshire.
Ellis and Joynes were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter and have been bailed as police continue to probe the death.
Neighbours have now rallied around the grief-stricken mother, who told friends that her world has ‘fallen apart’ after the third tragedy that has beset her and could not face returning to the £100,000 terraced house.
Ellis told neighbour Linda Siddle: ‘I can’t get over this. I can’t get over this. ‘I might never go back to that house.’
Mother Abigail Ellis with baby Elon just days before the tragedy unfolded at in Doncaster
Killer Chow Chow-cross Teddy ‘leapt from his garden pen and savaged’ 12-day-old Elon
Both Stephen Joynes, 35, and Abigail Ellis, 27, have been arrested after the tragic death
Joel, father of three of Ellis’ children, died last year following heart problems and is believed to have contracted sepsis.
Linda said that Ellis had rushed into the street screaming ‘I will never forgive myself’ in the moments after the horrific attack.
Breaking down in tears, Linda said she will spend her life ‘trying to forget’ what she saw in the house as she tried to console Ellis.
The mother-of-one from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, said: ‘I was just trying to console her, what can you even do in a situation like that.
‘She was hysterical, crying and screaming, I’ve never seen her like that before. Her world has just fallen apart and I just hope she can get the support she needs to get through this.
‘But what she’s suffered through, what she’s experienced, no one should ever have to. I went into the house and I will spend my life trying to forget what I saw.’
Linda, who has lived next door for 40 years and watched Abigail grow up, said she hopes Ellis would return. She added: ‘She needs our help and our support because what she’s going through right now is unimaginable.
‘I hope she comes back because we all love her here. This is her home, we are her family. But she won’t come back for a while, how could anyone?’
Abigail suddenly lost her father, who she ‘worshipped’, in 2013 and then her childhood sweetheart Joel Smart tragically died in 2018.
Linda said that Ellis was a ‘brilliant, caring, and loving’ mother who ‘gave absolutely everything’ for them.
Chow Chow mix Teddy is seen on the right next to another dog in a picture taken last year
Two of the family’s dogs are seen playing in a social media picture from last year
She added: ‘Abigail is a brilliant, caring, and loving mother. She gave everything she ever had for her kids despite everything she’d gone through.
‘Losing three people she loved with all of her heart – it’s not something anyone should ever have to go through.
‘When her dad died it completely devastated her. And then Joel was alive one day, and then dead the next.
‘I can’t believe all she’s had to fight in her young life.’
Linda said Ellis was excited to start a new chapter with her partner Stephen Joynes, who she described as being ‘fantastic’ with the kids.
She said that Ellis was over the moon when she found out she was pregnant and was beaming with excitement when little Elon was born.
Linda said: ‘She was so excited about this baby. She was so excited. I can’t believe this, still. ‘It was a new chapter in her life, after everything she’d been through, she was so excited to start something so beautiful with Stephen.
‘And it ended in 12 days in complete tragedy. You don’t expect a parent to bury their own child, never. They’re a family that just want to be happy – and she deserves that, she really does.’
Linda said Ellis’ three children are now staying with her mother, and that they are fine ‘but suffering’.
A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: ‘The dog was removed from the address on Sunday and will remain in secure kennels until enquiries have been completed.’
Floral tributes remain at the gates of the property and the curtains are drawn.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline about the attack, the baby’s uncle previously said: ‘It was horrible and we’re all in total shock. My sister’s in bits, she’s lost her baby, and her son saw it all.’
Floral tributes have also been left outside the Doncaster property where the child was bitten
‘Teddy’s not a bad or dangerous dog. He’d been living at the house for months and was really good around my sister’s other three kids.
‘I think he was jealous when the new baby came along and all the attention he was getting. Or maybe he thought the baby was a toy, he was a tiny thing and only six pounds something when he was born.’
The uncle, who had come to lay flowers at the scene and pay his respects, fought back tears, saying: ‘What happened is heartbreaking. I never even got to see my new nephew.’
Describing his sister’s ordeal, he said: ‘It’s your worst nightmare. She was upstairs on the toilet and Steve and my sister’s young lad were in the garden.
‘The dog was in the pen and he suddenly jumped over the top and got free and went through the open door into a room downstairs where the baby was in a Moses basket. Then it attacked him. He may have thought it was a toy or a doll.
‘I don’t know the full details because they’re too upset to talk about ut. But the dog had never been any trouble before. It had been living there for some time. It was Steve’s daughter’s dog and when he split up with his partner she didn’t want to keep it so my sister took it on.
South Yorkshire Police rushed to a property (pictured centre) in the village of Woodlands in Doncaster on Sunday afternoon following reports that a child had been attacked
‘It was a big softie called Teddy and all the kids and adults cuddled it. Police have destroyed it now so that’s another loss.’
He told how most neighbours had been very supportive but ‘some locals have been giving my sister a lot of grief and blaming her for what happened.’
He added: ‘It wasn’t her fault or Steve’s but simply a tragic accident and her son witnessed the attack. It will effect them all forever. They’ll never get over it.
‘She’ll never be able to live here again. They’ll have to move away.’
Samantha Foulds, who claims to be a close friend of the pair, also posted to Facebook: ‘I know these people well and I tell you it’s nothing more than a tragedy.
‘You have no idea what that family have gone through.