VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – Both owners of the dogs that mauled an 8-year-old boy to death in Volusia County earlier this year now face charges of tampering with evidence, according to the sheriff’s office.
Brandy Hodil was booked late Thursday and has since posted $7,500 bond while Amanda Franco — who it was announced Wednesday will face a second-degree misdemeanor charge in the case — turned herself in Friday, the Volusia Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook.
The sheriff’s office said in the statement on Friday that the new charges are related to the owners’ social media activity.
Detectives found that during their investigation, Franco deleted her Facebook account, which contained messages between her and a neighbor about her dogs’ violent tendencies. Franco later created a new account in April, while she was still under investigation. Hodil, Franco’s roommate and owner of the second dog, deleted specific messages between her and the neighbor about the dogs being loose the night of the incident. Through execution of a search warrant, detectives also discovered Hodil searched how to deactivate her account and messenger.
Volusia Sheriff's Office on Facebook (8/15/2025, excerpt)
Michael Millett was mauled to death by two dogs while riding his bike in a DeLand-area neighborhood back in January. The two dogs got loose from a nearby home and were later euthanized.
Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood said the two women had deleted their social media accounts the day after Millett was killed. One neighbor sent detectives screenshots, showing a history of the women’s dogs getting loose off their property and causing problems in the neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of people in the neighborhood that knew what was going on but because everybody had some kind of connection, they didn’t want to see anybody get in trouble or be considered a snitch they didn’t report it to law enforcement,” Chitwood said.
Chitwood said that there were other people who notified both Franco and Hodil on public pages through social media that their dogs had been out.
“The fact that they deleted these accounts shows you that they knew that the dogs were dangerous, the dogs could kill animals,” the sheriff said. “... Clearly there is knowledge there in those Facebook messenger posts that she didn’t want us to see. She knew when those dogs killed Michael, she knew if the cops got ahold of those messages that her a** was grass.”
Franco is being charged under the Dangerous Dogs Act for an “attack or bite by unclassified dog that causes severe injury or death.” Because the dogs had not been declared dangerous before, Florida law states that the owner commits a second-degree misdemeanor, which includes up to 60 days in jail or a $500 fine.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
View body-worn camera footage of Hodil’s arrest in the video player at the top of this story.
[MORE: Owner of dog that killed 8-year-old in DeLand attack faces misdemeanor charge]