Jamie-Lea Biscoe, just 19 years old, was found by her father in an upstairs bedroom of their home in Leaden Roding, a small village near Dunmow in Essex. She had serious traumatic injuries to her neck. Paramedics arrived and confirmed she was already gone. The suspected cause? One of the family’s own dogs, a blue-merle Lurcher-cross named Shy.A Lurcher isn’t a pedigree breed. It’s a cross, traditionally between a sighthound like a Greyhound or Whippet and another working breed, often a Collie or a Terrier. They were bred by travellers and poachers for speed, stealth, and a sharp prey drive. Fast, lean, and quietly intense. The blue-merle colouring almost certainly points to Collie influence somewhere in the lineage.An inquest was opened this week, where coroner’s officer Matthew Austin told the hearing that Jamie-Lea was found with “serious traumatic injuries to her neck” and that it was suspected these had been “caused by one of the family’s dogs.” A forensic post-mortem was carried out two days later, on April 12, with the provisional cause of death listed as neck injuries — though final conclusions are still pending histology and toxicology results. These things take time. Answers, it seems, will too.Essex senior coroner Lincoln Brookes confirmed he’d received a written request from Essex Police to pause the coronial proceedings while a criminal investigation runs its course. He suspended the inquest, but not before saying what needed to be said. “I do offer my deepest condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of Jamie-Lea Biscoe on what can only be described as a tragic loss of life,” he told the hearing.Dog attacks in the UK have been rising steadily. As per the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals there were close to 11 million dogs in the UK in 2023. Attacks by out of control dogs that caused injuries reached a seven-year high in the South East in 2024, BBC reported in 2025.
