Terry Garner, Oregon Farmer Eaten By Pigs

An Oregon farmer suffered a gruesome death last Wednesday morning when several of his own hogs devoured him, leaving only "some body parts strewn about found by a family member, reports NBC News.

The Coos County Sheriff's office is now questioning exactly how 69-year-old Terry Garner ended up in that predicament and if the hogs were the actual cause of his death.

The animals are estimated to weigh around 700 pounds.

"There are several scenarios being investigated, including that Mr. Garner had a health event, such as a heart attack, which then put him in a position where the hogs could consume him," the Sheriff's Office said in a statement. "Another scenario being investigated is that given the age and health of Mr. Garner, that one or more of the hogs knocked Mr. Garner to the ground, whereupon that hogs killed and consumed him."

The statement also said that one of the pigs had bitten Garner in the past."

District Attorney Paul Frasier said it is possible Garner had a heart attack or was knocked over and then killed and eaten. Frasier is also looking into foul play.

"For all we know, it was a horrific accident, but it's so doggone weird that we have to look at all possibilities," Frasier  said, according to The Guardian.

A pathologist was unable to identify a cause or manner of death.

An NBC News reporter placed a call to Garner's home, saying a man who said he was a family friend described the incident, saying: "What a way."

Friends and family described Garner as a "good-hearted" guy and "everybody knew him."

The article says this isn't the first time hogs have eaten their farmers. It tells of a Romanian woman knocked unconscious and eaten by pigs in 2004.

The Guardian also interviewed John Killefer, head of the animal and rangeland sciences department, who called the case "highly unusual."

"Domestic pigs are not typically known to be as aggressive as their feral cousins, but there is some degree of danger associated with any animal," he told The Guardian.