A girl's beloved dog, a grisly nightmare

A girl's beloved dog, a grisly nightmare
Crystal Brown's therapy dog disappeared. Later, the teen received his severed head gift-wrapped like a present.
By Mary Lynn Smith, Star Tribune

Crystal Brown's world was turned upside down a month ago when Chevy, her 4-year-old Australian shepherd mix, didn't come home.
"I told him everything and he never shared any of my secrets," said Crystal, 17, who has had some troubled times in her young life. Chevy was her therapy dog, and she leaned on him for comfort and support.

Two weeks ago, a gift-wrapped box was left at the house where she lives with her grandmother in St. Paul's Rice Street area. Inside the box, Crystal was horrified to find her dog's head.

"This was so cruel," Crystal said Wednesday. "This is one sick, twisted person."

The incident is considered so shocking that the Humane Society of the United States announced Wednesday that it was offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to an arrest and conviction.

Homicide investigators are looking into the case because of the "implied" terroristic threat, St. Paul Police Sgt. Jim Gray said.

"This was extraordinarily heinous," said Dale Bartlett, the Humane Society's deputy manager for animal cruelty issues. "I deal with hundreds and hundreds of cruelty cases each year. When I read about this case, it took my breath away. It's horrible."

This case, Bartlett said, is far worse than a recent episode in Oshkosh, Wis., where a 49-year-old man decapitated two of his kittens because "they were annoying."

Sending the dog's head to the teenager was a malicious act, Bartlett said. "That level of depravity is beyond belief."

Shirley Brown, Crystal's grandmother, said that Chevy wandered off after she let him out one night in mid-February.

'It was just me and him'

Crystal peppered the neighborhood with "missing" posters, and went door to door with two photos of Chevy in hopes that someone had spotted him. She rode the bus countless times to the St. Paul animal shelter and called there "thousands of times," she said.

"I felt empty," Crystal said. "I couldn't talk to anyone. He was my dog. It was just me and him."

Then Shirley Brown came home one day and found a box wrapped in red paper on her front steps, with batteries taped to the box. "Congratulations Crystal," the note said. "This side up. Batteries included."

Shirley Brown placed the box on her granddaughter's bedroom dresser. "I was surprised and excited," Crystal said. "I thought it was a gift from my cousin."

She tore off the paper and ripped open the box. Inside, she found valentine candy and a black garbage bag. And then she saw her dog's face.

Crystal screamed and ran to the kitchen to find her grandmother: "Is this my dog, Grandma? No! That's not my dog? Is it my dog?"

An isolated incident

Gray said that investigators believe the case is an isolated incident and that the suspect knows the family. "We don't know what the motive would be," Gray said. "It's a terrible thing to do to someone's pet."

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call St. Paul police at 651-266-5659.

Chevy, Crystal said, was the best friend she ever had.

"He was more patient than any person I ever met. That dog waited for years for me to get myself together," said Crystal, who began to cry.

"That dog didn't care what I did, what I didn't do ... what anyone did to me. He didn't care about any of that. He just wanted to love me the way I loved him."

Crystal has a new puppy now, another Australian shepherd that she's named Diesel. The puppy's no Chevy. Not yet, anyway.

"Hopefully, he'll be my best friend," Crystal said. Hopefully, he will be my guide through life."


Mary Lynn Smith • 651-298-1550 • mlsmith@startribune.com

[glatt]

You post the article but don't say anything about it.

So how does this story fit in with your idea that prosecuting hate crimes is bad? Where's the actual crime here, besides a couple petty crimes like littering and disposing of a dog's body improperly?

[Shawnee123]

That is just a horrible story. I don't know why anyone would do anything so cruel.

[Elspode]

Whoever did this is the kind of criminal who needs to be taken out and have the shit kicked out of them, *then* given a fair trial and conviction.

[Spexxvet]

Maybe Chevy was opposed to something the Bush administration supports - and got Plamed x 10.

[piercehawkeye45]

Someone liked the Godfather too much...

This is horrible, that person has something seriously wrong with him/her. By reading the article and the way she looked in the picture I saw in my paper, she is probably not a popular girl in her school. Probably some douchebag asshole that will fail at life...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sending the head would seem to be the work of a truly sick individual, no question about that.

I do have questions that nobody here can answer.

1-How did the dog die?
2-Did someone kill the dog just to ship the head?
3-Did it get hit by a car or some other accident, then somebody found it, knew who owned it and decided to be a dick?
4-Killed the dog for some other reason, like aggression, excess barking, crapping on their lawn, then decided to be a dick.

I could go on but #1 is primary.

[skysidhe]

[piercehawkeye45]

I don't know how they would tell without the body. If it died to a blow to the head they may have found out already.

[monster]

My questions include:

why paste the whole article? -a summary and a link would suffice
why no comment/opinion -yup it's sick -which bit do you want us to discuss?
what is the purpose of the post?
why is it in Nothingland?

I would have completely ignored the post if it wasn't from someone whose posts I make a point of reading and whose opinions I respect and often agree with. So I'm wondering if somehow you accidentally deleted what you wrote about it? Or if I'm missing something really really obvious other than that this is a sick and nasty thing? (It wouldn't be the first time)

Right now, though, it just seems to be a post revelling in the sickness of others.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by piercehawkeye45

I don't know how they would tell without the body. If it died to a blow to the head they may have found out already.

Ah!....another question, where's the body? That would be incriminating, maybe they should be looking for fresh digging in the 'hood.

[Sundae]

Questions that maybe can be answered:
- Is Therapy Dog an official title or has it been invented for the article? I've never heard that term before.
- She let the dog out and he wandered off. Is this likely? Are dogs generally allowed to roam the streets in the US? Pure curiousity because here in the UK responsible owners don't let their dogs out into the street (as opposed to a garden or yard I mean).

It is a revolting and cruel thing for anyone to do. But I worry about the girl's reaction - she seems to be far too dependent on an animal. That seems far sadder than the death of a dog.

[wolf]

There are certifications for Therapy Dog (or pet) in the U.S. There are also specially trained animals that assist the disabled. Seeing Eye Dogs are the best known, but there are also Hearing Ear Dogs for the Deaf (notify owners of phone calls, doorbells, sirens and alarms and the like), as well as different types of assistive aniimals for the physically disabled, like the monkeys that do stuff for paraplegics. We have Pet Therapy at the nuthouse. The dogs are as therapeutic for the staff as for the patients. When they are in we make a point of going back to the Chart Room and getting our facelicking. Spanky is the one on the left.



The animal in question in this story may or may not have been a trained pet therapy animal ... the article may be using that terminology to evoke an emotional response from the reader, when the dog was really just a good listener in the home of a loney child.

[Undertoad]

Bostie! Bean was a Certified Therapy Dog at Children's Hospital of Phila.

Pearl attempted but failed at the Certification process. Too uppity.

[wolf]

Actually, Bean and Pearl are two of the reasons that I took to Spanky so quickly. It's not that I'm anti-small dog, but I am strongly pro-large dog. Unlike Chihuahuas, Bostons don't know that they are small, so they rock.