French pregnant woman believed to have been killed by hunting dogs...

A pregnant French woman who was beaten to death during a deer hunt in the forest was killed by her boyfriend’s dog and not by the hunting dogs, DNA tests show.

The 29-year-old Elisa Pilarski was killed in November last year while walking with her partner’s American Staffordshire terrier Curtis in the Retz forest near Paris.

She was six months pregnant. The mysterious circumstances of the case aroused great interest in France and became a matter picked up by proponents of and against hunting.

An autopsy showed that Elisa died of bleeding from her upper and lower limbs and head after several dog bites.

Christophe said at the time of his girlfriend’s death that he had found Elisa “completely undressed” with “bite marks everywhere”.

The first suspicion fell on the hunting dogs. Christophe Lucien Joseph, Elisha’s partner, said he found her naked body with “bite marks all over” after calling him to say she was concerned about some “threatening dogs”.

Christophe sobbed in an interview with French broadcaster BFM in November last year, describing how he initially thought her stomach was a block of wood.

Next to the body sat Christopher’s dog Curtis, who had a bite on the head.

When asked who in his opinion was responsible, Christophe replied: “It can only be hunting.”

But DNA tests on 67 dogs exposed the dog Curtis from Elisha’s partner, said the local hunting club.

“The results of the DNA tests definitely confirm the innocence of the dogs (dogs),” said the rally La Passion Club, adding that Curtis was the killer.

Another source close to the investigation, asking not to be named, told AFP that the terrier’s DNA was found on Elisha’s dog bite, adding that her DNA was also found on his leash.

Shortly before the attack, Elisa had called her partner Christophe to tell him that she had encountered threatening dogs and was having trouble keeping Curtis on a leash.

The suspicion initially fell on the hunting dogs, but DNA tests now show that it was Christophe’s dog that killed Elisa

Christophe arrived on site about 45 minutes later and found her body in a ravine next to Curtis and ‘about 30’ dogs with a rider.

Their clothes had been torn off.

Christophe accused the dogs of their death, allegations that the hunting club vigorously denied.

DNA tests were performed on 62 dogs – belonging to the hunting club – and five dogs owned by Christophe and Elisa.

Elisha’s mother said her daughter had never been alone with Curtis.

After her death, the terrier bit a person on a dog pound.