Updated

A family's young pit bull dogs that were found decapitated on railroad tracks in western Colorado were hit by a freight train, investigators confirmed on Tuesday.

A Union Pacific conductor reported seeing the two dead dogs intact on the tracks April 19 but couldn't stop the train in time, Mesa County sheriff's investigators said.

Christin Ormond, the owner of the dogs named B.B. and Calypso, called their deaths "unimaginable, sick, twisted, and gruesome."

The sheriff's office asked for the public's help figuring out how the dogs got on the train tracks. The dogs were found dead in the community of Orchard Mesa, next to Grand Junction.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.