HAMILTON, Ohio — Police in Hamilton say they are frustrated, trying to piece together what happened to leave two dogs decapitated.
According to police, it took witnesses two days to report the dogs’ deaths. Police weren’t notified until Tuesday, but photos of the dogs were shared on Facebook as early as Sunday evening.
Investigators say it’s unclear if the dogs were dead before they were placed on a set of railroad tracks, or if things aren’t quite what they seem.
BACKGROUND: Dogs found killed, mutilated in Hamilton
“I know it sounds cruel, but I hope they were deceased (before being placed on the tracks),” said Hamilton Police Sgt. Ed Buns.
Buns was one of the officers who responded to 911 calls reporting the dogs found dead on the tracks. He told WCPO it’s one of the worst things he’s ever seen.
“In a 36-year career, I’ve seen horrendous things done to people,” Buns said. “I’ve seen horrendous things done to everything, and this is probably in the top five.”
The railroad tracks aren’t buried deep in the woods, or off in the middle of nowhere. To the contrary, they’re pretty easy to get to, running through two Hamilton neighborhoods.
“I’m amazed that all the people that knew about this…nobody had the thought of, ‘Hey, we ought to call the police and tell them about this,’” Buns said.
As WCPO reported Tuesday, one of the dogs that was killed, Scrappy, is believed to be the same animal that bit a child earlier this summer after a group of kids taunted it. Scrappy’s owner, Kari Walters, claims she gave the dog to a friend at the end of July, who told her Scrappy had escaped over the weekend.
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As for the second dog, identified by owner Gina Angelica as Deno, Angelica said he was let out over the weekend but never came back home.
Angelica lives near the same stretch of train tracks.
“That dog — that was my best friend,” she said. “He was a very good dog.”
Buns said detectives are aggressively investigating this case in cooperation with the Butler County Dog Warden.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact Hamilton police, at 513-868-5811 EXT. 2002.
