KELSO — An English bulldog that went missing this month has been found dead after his owner received ransom notes by text message demanding cash and drugs.
A resident of Kelso, in southwestern Washington, reported seeing a dead dog along railroad tracks Monday morning, the Cowlitz County sheriff’s office said. Deputies confirmed it was the missing dog, Jagger.
The dog, which appeared to have been dead for up to three days, had been struck by a train — but it wasn’t clear whether that was the cause of death.
“We’ve put many hours into this case, and I hate that the dog was killed, whether by a train, or any other means,” Sheriff Mark Nelson said. “We’ll follow any leads we get to find who took Jagger.”
The Cowlitz County Humane Society recovered Jagger’s remains, and a veterinarian planned to examine them Tuesday.
Jagger vanished from the driveway of his owner’s home in Woodland on Oct. 5.
The owner, Jennifer Thomas, told Portland, Ore., television station KATU she saw a man and a woman in her driveway just before she noticed the dog was missing.
Three days later, she called police to say she had received pictures of the dog and text messages demanding $1,000 and prescription painkillers.
Thomas wept as she read some of the ransom messages to the station. One said that unless she followed instructions, “the next few pictures will be of your friend slowly getting tortured to death.”
“Keep this to yourself,” said another. “No cops.”
The sheriff’s chief deputy, Corey Huffine, said Thursday that investigators have no reason to believe Thomas was involved in the disappearance and they were working to track down where the messages came from.
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