DETROIT – A Farmington Hills family dog was missing for a week, only to be found dead in a Detroit city park.
Duchess was adopted from the Detroit Animal Care and Control shelter in October of 2024. She was found dead in Rouge Park in Detroit on Thursday, April 24, 2025.
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The dog appeared to have a bullet wound to the back of the head, according to Detroit General Services director Crystal Perkins. Investigators are waiting on the results of a necropsy before an official cause of death is determined.
“This is an active investigation,” Perkins said. “The dog was microchipped, and the family did inform us that the dog ran away from their home in Farmington Hills about a week ago. We did not receive any reports of a missing dog or stray dog in this area.”
But Duchess isn’t the first dog to be found dead in Rouge Park. The Local 4 Investigative team has been tracking the issue for more than a year.
—> Previous: Dogs are being dumped at this Detroit park. What is the city doing?
Stray, dead dogs found in Rouge Park
Rouge Park is Michigan’s largest urban park and spans 1,184 acres.
When Local 4 visited the park in May 2024, there was a dead dog that had been dumped with a bag over her head. At the time, several people, including city employees, said dogs were being dumped at Rouge Park all the time — dead and alive.
Greg Donigian, from Wyandotte, works near Rouge Park. Before and after his shift, he looks for stray or lost dogs and puts out food and fresh water for them. Donigian has been doing this since 2018 and rescues the ones he can. So far, he said he’s rescued 67 dogs from the park.
He reached out to Local 4 after finding two dead dogs in the park. One of those dogs has since been identified as Duchess.
“This one, kind of suspicious, as well as the other one from yesterday, it was in a bag on the side of the road. I don’t know if someone just dumped it there,” Donigian said.
Donigian is concerned. He said he wants to see animal rescues step up and help. He also hopes the city will do more in terms of patrolling the park.
“There’s definitely an issue here, it’s a problem, and it’ll go away for a while, now that it’s warming up, people are out and about. I’m afraid it’s gonna get bad again,” Donigian said.
Perkins said the city isn’t receiving reports of dead or stray dogs in Rouge Park, and the city is urging people to make a report if they see something.
Donigian said he hadn’t reported the dead dog. Local 4 Investigators let the city know about the dead dog and a few hours later animal control arrived to initiate an investigation.
Investigators were able to use the information from the microchip to identify Duchess and locate her owner. Animal control also removed her body from the field.
The city said they need to be alerted so they can retrieve the animal, investigate, and either find an owner or rehome the dog. If the dog is deceased, an investigation will need to be conducted to find cause of death.
“If people see something, whether they’re stray, whether they’re dead, whether they see the actual dumping, we ask that they give us a call,” Perkins said. “We need the community’s help because this is a 1,100-acre park. This is the largest park in the state of Michigan, and it’s huge.”
—> Has Detroit done anything about the dogs being dumped at Rouge Park?
How to report stray, dead dogs in Detroit
Stray or dead dogs can be reported by calling Detroit Animal Control directly at 313-922-DOGS or through their website. Call 911 if there is an emergency.
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