The life of a terminally-ill South Australian mother who was mauled to death by her pet pitbull-mastiff had been tragically shaped by the brutal murder of her father.

Christine Kulis, who died on Thursday at the Whyalla home she shared with fiancé Arlan Potter and their dogs, was just 39 and dying of cirrhosis of the liver when the dog launched its deadly attack.

Her mother, Meredith Howe, confirmed her daughter had died after Ms Kulis ignored pleas to put the animal down, following an earlier attack which saw Ms Kulis airlifted to hospital with serious arm injuries just weeks before.

But Ms Howe revealed Ms Kulis’ tragic life had been marred from childhood when her father was murdered when her daughter was just a toddler.

John Kulis was the same age as his daughter when he was brutally killed on May 2, 1989 during the petty theft of his gambling winnings.

In 2017, Ms Kulis posted a heartbreaking photograph of herself as a child in the arms of her father to the website findagrave.com.

‘Me and my dad. Love you, forever in my heart, xxx,’ she posted.

Media reports from the time reveal Mr Kulis died after he was visited at his home by New Zealander Michael Stephen Holden, 28, and Tasmanian Alan Leslie Walters, 58.

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Christine Kulis was pictured with her partner Arlan Potter and one of their dogs

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Christine posted a tribute to her murdered father on a grave-finding website

‘Holden and Walter masterminded a plan to drug Mr Kulis by putting Valium in his food and robbing him of $200 he’d won on the horses,’ the Adelaide Advertiser reported.

‘After Mr Kulis ate the meal, a witness said he appeared drowsy and was slurring his words. The witness then left the house.

‘But when Mr Kulis did not lose consciousness, Holden decided to kill him, punching him, jumping on his stomach and choking him until he died.’

The following day, Holden and Walters left Mr Kulis’ South Australian home in Port Augusta, 310km north of Adelaide, and stole a car from the nearby racecourse.

They bundled his body into the back and drove it to an isolated spot 40km outside of town where they buried him in a shallow grave next to the Stuart Highway.

Mr Kulis’s body was found almost three weeks later when someone spotted disturbed dirt and the father’s remains were identified by his fingerprints.

‘It was coincidentally about 750m from a marijuana crop, leading police to first believe the death was drug-related,’ the Advertiser reported.

The Supreme Court heard Mr Kulis‘ larynx had been severely fractured and his skull had sustained horrific injuries.

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Ms Kulis was urged by her mother to put one of her dogs down after it attacked her recently

Information from the public led police to Holden and Walters who were arrested.

Holden insisted to detectives that he didn’t intend to kill Mr Kulis, but was ‘out of his head’ on speed and ‘smack’.

Walters said he wasn’t involved in the killing but admitted helping Holden tie up Mr Kulis’ body after they stole the car.

Holden was found guilty of murder, while Walter pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.

Holden was sentenced to life in jail with a non-parole period of 21 years. Walters was sentenced to three years’ jail with a non-parole period of two years.

Mr Kulis is buried in Adelaide, and his widow still lives in Port Augusta.

On Thursday, police and paramedics rushed to their daughter’s home on Murphy Crescent in Whyalla Stuart around 4pm, but Ms Kulis could not be saved.

It was not the first time the dog attacked Ms Kulis, who was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and ‘was skin and bone’ when she died.

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Sources say Ms Kulis was extremely sick and was ‘skin and bone’ before she died

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Neighbours in Murphy Crescent were not surprised the dog attacked its owner

The dead woman’s close friend Alison Erskine told Daily Mail the dog had ripped the flesh off Ms Kulis’ arm during another savage attack in recent months and she was airlifted to hospital.

‘It bit through the tendons so they flew her to Adelaide and she stayed in hospital,’ Ms Erskine said.

‘When she came back (to Whyalla) she wasn’t the same person – she was so thin and withdrawn.

‘That dog is mental, it’s mad – I told her (she) should have it put down but they wouldn’t.’

Ms Erskine said Ms Kulis – whose children did not live with her – had tried to give up alcohol because doctors warned her she was dying, but kept returning to it.

Ms Erskine said that Mr Potter would push her around town in a shopping trolley when she became unable to walk because of her condition.

It is understood that Ms Kulis was engaged to Mr Potter, and went by the name Chrissy Kay Potter on social media. They had been together for 10 years.

On Friday, a Whyalla city council spokesman confirmed the dog – which neighbours allege has killed several pets in the Murphy Crescent area – had been put down.

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It is understood Ms Kulis was engaged to Mr Potter

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A local resident captured CCTV footage of one of the couple’s dogs on a rampage recently

CCTV footage obtained by Daily Mail showed Ms Kulis and Mr Potter embroiled in a physical row with a neighbour after the animal allegedly attacked their cat.

In the video, Ms Kulis and Mr Potter can be heard warning the neighbour: ‘I’ll kill you.’

In separate footage, a brown and white pit bull-mastiff cross allegedly owned by the couple was seen hurling itself at a neighbour’s fence before being restrained.

One neighbour claimed it had been seen near children ‘foaming at the mouth’ and was ‘covered in scars’.

It is understood the dog was bred by the couple from another dog they owned.

‘The mother is sweet, but her son, this dog, was mad. I came out of the bathroom and it went for me once,’ said Ms Erskine, who has been friends with Ms Kulis for eight years.

‘I told them I didn’t want to be around it.’

She revealed she arrived at Ms Kulis and Mr Potter’s home on Thursday evening to visit them, and found him ‘covered in blood’ sitting outside and talking to police.

‘He told me the dog attacked Chrissy. Police told me to move on so I shouted at Potter to tell Chrissy I would see her at the hospital,’ she said.

‘But then I found out that she had died.’

Other neighbours said they were not surprised the dog had turned on its owner and killed her.

One neighbour, who was friends with Ms Kulis, revealed she would not walk her dogs past the couple’s property for fear of an attack.

‘I told her she should get rid of him because of her health – that she should think about her own health instead of the animal’s,’ said the friend.

Many said the dog had been reported to Whyalla City Council on several occasions.

South Australia Police would not comment on any charges over the incident but said they were preparing a report for the coroner.

Media inquiries were referred to the council, which declined to comment because of the ‘active SAPOL investigation’.

Mr Potter could not be reached for comment, but Ms Erskine said he had contacted her on Friday about the cost of funeral expenses.