WATERVILLE — Police continue to investigate a case involving two missing pit bulls ordered euthanized by the court whose owner claims they slipped from their leashes Oct. 24 at the Webb Road animal shelter and are missing.
Waterville police Chief Joseph Massey said police hope the investigation leads to the dogs, but it is difficult because police do not have a lot of information to go on.
“What we’re trying to do right now is identify anyone who might be able to help us or give us information that may lead to where the dogs are,” Massey said Wednesday.
Anyone who has information about the whereabouts of the pit bulls is asked to call Waterville police at 680-4700.
The dogs, Bentley and Kole, are owned by Danielle Jones, of Winslow, but she is forbidden to have possession of them, per court order. Before their disappearance, the pit bulls had been housed at the Humane Society Waterville Area shelter on Webb Road since August 2016, when they killed a Boston terrier and seriously wounded its owner, Sharron Carey, as she walked the terrier on Lucille Avenue in Winslow.
Jones had been going to the shelter twice a week for the past year to walk the pit bulls while the case was on appeal in the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. That court on Oct. 24 upheld the ruling that the dogs are dangerous and ordered them euthanized. Moments after that court issued its decision, Jones went to the shelter, walked the dogs, and reported to the shelter staff that the canines had slipped from their leashes and run off into the woods.
Waterville police say they doubt that the dogs are on the loose, and no sightings of them have been reported. Winslow police Chief Shawn O’Leary said he thinks the disappearance was the result of a “coordinated effort” by Jones.
Meanwhile, the shelter’s executive director, Lisa Smith, has resigned from her position. She said earlier this week that she was not at the shelter Oct. 24 when Jones took the dogs for a walk, as it was her day off, and she and the shelter staff think they were deceived by Jones and that the dogs were stolen.
Asked what charges Jones might face if she did take the dogs, Massey said it probably would be contempt of court. The Kennebec County District Attorney’s Office probably would decide if there would be other charges.
Massey said he is concerned that the pit bulls, wherever they are, pose a danger to people and animals.
“They’ve already proven that they can be very aggressive,” he said. “They have killed one small dog and bitten a person.”
Massey said last week that Jones has refused to speak with police and that was making the investigation difficult. Jones referred a reporter’s questions to her attorneys, Tom Page and Bonnie Martinolich, but neither returned calls placed to their phones last week and this week.
Jones had previously said that she no longer owned The Muddy Paw, a dog grooming business in Winslow, and asked that she not be called there. However, in an email sent Wednesday evening, Jones admitted to lying about no longer owning the business, saying, “(I) just thought I’d prove to you that you will publish anything that anyone says truth or not!” A call placed Wednesday to her cellphone was not successful, as it bears a recording that says her mailbox is full.
Contacted by phone Wednesday, Carey’s husband, Bill Carey, referred questions to his wife’s attorney, Steve Blackwell, of the Bangor firm Lanham, Blackwell & Baber, P.A. Blackwell did not immediately return a call Wednesday afternoon seeking comment.
Also contacted Wednesday afternoon, Walter McKee, an attorney representing Jones in a civil case Sharron Carey filed against Jones in the dog attack, said he is not involved in the recent issue of the pit bulls’ disappearance.
The personal injury lawsuit, McKee said, is in the discovery phase and it could be months until a trial is held.
That trial would determine who was at fault and what, if any, damages would be awarded.
Amy Calder — 861-9247
Twitter: @AmyCalder17
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