NC dog owner faces new charge in dog attack that killed 85-year-old woman
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- Dennis O’Keith Faulkner, 32, was charged with felony involuntary manslaughter Wednesday.
- He had faced six misdemeanors: three for roaming dogs and three vaccination violations.
- A medical examiner ruled Betty Alston died from injuries sustained in an animal attack.
The Apex man whose dogs police said fatally attacked an 85-year-old woman last week now faces a felony charge for her death.
Dennis O’Keith Faulkner, 32, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with involuntary manslaughter, the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office said, after Betty Alston, 85, died from her injuries.
That felony charge adds to the six misdemeanors that Faulkner initially faced after the incident: three counts of allowing animals to roam at large prohibited and three counts of dog vaccination violations, The News & Observer previously reported.
Chatham County deputies were dispatched to Alston Road in Apex May 19 where they found Alston dead outside the home. Alston’s daughter told ABC11, The N&O’s newsgathering partner, that her mother was in the yard when three dogs attacked her.
A family member told deputies that he had to shoo the dogs away from himself and Alston when he arrived at the scene.
Investigators later identified those three dogs as belonging to Faulkner, the Sheriff’s Office said, and the dogs remained in custody as of Wednesday morning. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Alston died because of injuries sustained during “an animal attack,” the Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.
Faulkner is being held without bail in Chatham County custody and is set to appear in court on June 3.
The Sheriff’s Office also reported last week two previous incidents involving Faulkner and two dogs he owned, including a December 2025 report of loose dogs and a February 2026 well-being check on the same two dogs. Faulkner surrendered the dogs after the second incident, The N&O previously reported.
This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 12:39 PM.
