Missouri man dumped dachshund in a cold ditch — but left a big clue behind, police say
A sheriff’s deputy found him in a ditch in Jefferson County, Missouri over the weekend.
Someone had fashioned a muzzle from duct tape and wrapped it around his mouth, robbing the little dog of the ability to bark for help.
His paws, front and back, were also bound with tape. The brown and black dachshund was trussed like a Thanksgiving turkey, as a photo from the sheriff’s department shows.
“The dog was found in 30-degree weather. Police said temperatures had dipped into the teens the night before,” according to Fox 2 in St. Louis.
The sheriff’s office has asked the public to help find the owner. Meanwhile, the dog has a new nickname - “Jimmy.”
“Do you recognize this dog? He was dumped near Old Highway M & Schneider Road. His mouth and paws were taped. He was cold, starving & possibly had a concussion,” the sheriff’s department tweeted Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the Jefferson County prosecutor charged 39-year-old Paul Garcia of Barnhart, Missouri with felony animal abuse and armed criminal action, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Bail was set at $50,000.
The dog was found about 12 hours after Garcia threw it out the window of a vehicle, says a statement from Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak.
“Authorities don’t know why Garcia duct-taped the dog,” Fox 2 reported.
Garcia implicated himself with what he left behind on the duct tape, authorities said.
The deputy who found the dog had the “forethought to save that duct tape and took it back to the evidence lab and the techs worked on it for hours and they were able to slowly peel that duct tape apart and they found a fingerprint on the sticky side of it,” Grant Bissell, a spokesman for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, told Fox 2.
The fingerprint was key to solving the case, Bissell told the St. Louis newspaper.
Investigators were ”able to freeze the tape and find fingerprints,” which led them to Garcia whose name popped up in a database, Bissell told the Post-Dispatch.
Jimmy wound up at Ivan Animal Hospital in House Springs, Missouri, Fox 2 reported. A video the sheriff’s office posted on Thursday shows him looking like a happy little dachshund.
“His prognosis looks very good,” Laura Ivan, veterinarian at Ivan Animal Hospital, told Fox 2.
“He has a little bit of a residual head tilt which basically implies that he is off balance a little bit ... But he’s been happy, he wags his tail a lot, he’s active, he’s eating.”
Jimmy now has fans who are leaving messages on the sheriff’s department social media pages.
One man asked for the name of the hospital taking care of him because he wants “to take care of the bill.”
Though people have offered to take Jimmy into their homes, the sheriff’s office is still trying to track down his owners.
“Right now he is NOT available for adoption,” the office has announced.