WALL — Authorities say an 87-year-old West Texas woman is dead after she was attacked by a swarm of bees at her home.
Tom Green County sheriff's deputies say Bessie Wilde was dead by the time deputies, volunteer firefighters and emergency medical technicians arrived at her home Thursday afternoon.
Sheriff's Lt. Christina Lopez tells the San Angelo Standard-Times that neighbors tried to help the woman before authorities arrived by were repulsed by the swarm. She said deputies and firefighters had to don protective gear to recover her body.
Lopez says investigators later determined that Wilde was riding a lawn mower on her property in Wall when she was attacked. Wall is a community of about 350 residents 10 miles southeast of San Angelo.