NAPASKIAK, Alaska -A 3-year-old girl was mauled and killed by a sled dog after she wandered into a Napaskiak yard while playing Thursday afternoon, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Krystal Brink, 3, of Kasigluk was found dead in the dog yard after the other children went inside and she was discovered missing. A family member of hers then went to the dog yard with a gun and killed every dog there, troopers said.

"It was a pretty emotional situation," Ipsen said. "It's a tragic event. We're dealing with it accordingly."

The girl had been visiting relatives in Napaskiak, a community of roughly 430 on the east bank of the Kuskokwim River about seven miles southeast of Bethel. She and some other children had been outside playing in the afternoon and the adults called them in about 5 p.m., troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said.

The other children came in but didn't know where Brink was, she said. Family members began looking for her and found her in a sled dog yard at a nearby house. There were seven dogs tied up in the open yard, and the child had passed all the animals except the last one, Ipsen said.

The girl had been bitten multiple times and had puncture wounds in her flesh, she said.

Ipsen refused to say where the girl was bitten, saying she simply was "not going to get into the gory details of this."

The dogs' owner told troopers he did not want to press charges, she said. Troopers would not identify the relative who shot the dogs or their owner.

A trooper responded to the village and remained there investigating the matter until 3 a.m. today and the case remained under investigation.

The girls' body was sent to Anchorage for an autopsy and the dog's was also being tested by the Department of Health and Social Services.