DeMotte, IN Man Shoots and Buries Neighbors 3 Dogs who Enter his Property

It was a miserable day in Demotte, Indiana, bitterly cold with freezing rain pelting the ground. But Dana Drew’s dogs wanted to go outside anyway, so she let them into her fenced backyard for a few minutes. It was about 5:15 p.m. on Monday, December 28. It was also last time she’d ever see her three Huskies — Storm, Lola, and Buster — alive.

A few minutes later, Drew noticed they were missing. The storm had caused erosion that allowed them to escape underneath of her gate. She went out onto her porch and smoked a cigarette, figuring her dogs would turn up soon.

They didn’t.

Drew was so distraught about her missing dogs that she took the next day off work. She spent all day looking for them. She also posted pictures of them in various Facebook groups she belonged to, including “Lost And Found Dogs Of Indiana.”

At about 9 p.m. on Tuesday, she received a call from a couple in a nearby town. “Their daughter had been on Snapchat and a friend of her friend had posted a picture of three dead dogs on the back of a truck saying ‘this is what I come home to,'” Drew told ThinkProgress in an interview.

The girl told her parents about the photo and they connected the story to Drew’s post on the Facebook group. The boy was from Demotte. They sent her a screenshot of the Snapchat and Drew saw Storm, Lola, and Buster, bloody and piled on top of each other.

From there, Drew was able to use the Facebook group to identify the boy’s full name and address. She then called the DeMotte Police Department.

Soon afterward, she got a visit from DeMotte Assistant Police Chief Steven Musch, who had visited the boy’s home. Musch determined her dogs were killed not by the boy but by his stepfather, Randy Wall.

Wall told the police that he shot the dogs to protect the deer that he breeds on his property, which is about a mile from Drew’s house. Allegedly the dogs were “trying to get under the fence to get to the deer.”

“Randy got on his four-wheeler and tried to chase them off and as a last resort had to shoot all three of your dogs,” Musch said, according to Drew.

Drew was stunned. “How do you shoot three dogs?… This was a dog hunt,” she told the officer.

“No ma’am, dogs kill deer,” Musch replied.

Drew told Musch that her dogs lived in a subdivision and would be terrified of deer.

“Ma’am, he had every legal right to shoot your dogs.”

When Drew asked for her dogs’ bodies, Musch reached into his car and handed her three bloody collars. Drew asked where her dogs were and Musch told her Wall “burned them.”

Drew asked Musch if he was really okay with Wall’s conduct. “Ma’am, I have two dogs. But it’s the law. And he really feels bad about it,” he said before leaving.

Drew’s account of their conversation is largely reflected in a press released that was issued by the Demotte Police Department on December 31.
According to the police statement, however, Wall shot the dogs while they were still outside of his fence. There is no evidence that the dogs posed any danger to the deer at the time they were shot. By Wall’s own admission, he was able to scare them away from the fence, at least for a time, with his four-wheeler. So it appears there were alternatives available.

Wall’s conduct after the shooting also raises serious questions. Drew told ThinkProgress that all the dogs had tags with identification and the number of their veterinarian. But instead of attempting to get in touch with their owner, Wall burned the bodies of the dogs and made no effort to contact Drew prior to the police arriving at his door.

In 2016, the FBI will begin tracking cases of animal cruelty nationally for the first time. Police departments will “will be required to report animal-related crimes to the national database.” They will be categorized as “crime against society.”

The new FBI effort is designed to combat indifference to crimes against animals among law enforcement. Years ago, “[i]f there were an animal crime, we would just send it over to animal control or ignore it,” John Thompson, deputy executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association said. Thompson pushed the FBI to begin tracking animal cruelty.

People should sign because this is an injustice and animal cruelty. This man should not have killed these three innocent dogs in the first place and in such a cruel way. He did it cruelly, and in a way to cover it. What made his property more valuable than his neighbor's. There are various solutions to problems and killing these poor dogs wasn't one of them and all in the name of greed and animal cruelty. He needs to be punished and pay the consequences for being so cruel and inhumane. He obviously has no respect for life and other's people's property. His arrogance is disgusting and despicable. He thinks he's above the law and that his property is more valuable and gives him the right take the lives in this case of his neighbors dogs just because they got out of their yard. They are dogs being dogs. All he had to do is call the cops and have them do their job not be a vigilante. He deserves to go to jail for animal cruelty and since they consider these poor precious dogs property than destruction or personal property.... he can't get off with a slap on the wrist. What makes his "property" more valuable than Dana Drew's