A Minnesota woman, her daughter, and their three huskies were visiting family in Baudette over the holiday season, a trip they have taken many times with their dogs. On Christmas Eve as they were walking the huskies in Zippel Bay State Park, two of the three dogs got loose and were not located. But after five days of non-stop searching, those two huskies were found fatally shot and disposed of in a ditch just outside of the city.
The incident has left the family and Baudette residents asking, why?
“It’s going to live with me forever,” said Leslie Stangler, an owner of Maple and Tucker, the two huskies. “Those were my puppies born at home. We were a pack.”
After the dogs went missing, Stangler was doing everything she could to get her family’s dogs back.
“I spent days calling for them,” she said. “I went home and I got my camping gear, and I spent every day there from Christmas almost to New Year’s, looking for my family, looking for my dogs.”
“We had an all-out campaign of signs, posters, [help from] The Retrievers, Lost Dogs Minnesota, and the community involvement,” says Romona Anderson Rowett, another owner of Maple and Tucker.
But then, something was heard during one of the days of searching for the dogs.
“I heard gunshots. They were within a half a mile from where I was,” said Stangler.
“In her heart, she knew what had happened,” added Anderson Rowett.
After five days of non-stop searching, the family received a call that no one ever wants to hear.
“It’s like when the military comes to your door, you know what it’s about. It was heartbreaking,” Anderson Rowett said.
According to the Lake of the Woods County Sheriff’s Office, on December 29th, just five days after the huskies first went missing, they were found deceased in a ditch on County Road 4, less than two miles from where they first went missing. After notifying the owner of what happened, a volunteer on the search team came to retrieve their bodies.
“We got out to where they were dumped, I ran down to them and realized that they had been there for at least a day or two,” explained Casey Bledsoe, a volunteer searching for Tucker and Maple. “They were frozen in the ditch, and so I got back up to the car, got my trailer hitch. One of the police officers had a broom and we both just started chipping away at the huskies, trying as careful as we could to just get them out.”
Casey then returned the bodies of the two dogs back to their owners.
“It just hurts, and then to see not only the owner, but Sasha, the mom mama dog, to see both her babies dead,” Casey added tearfully. “All I could do was hug Sasha and apologize to her about her two babies, and instead she was giving me kisses and comforting me while I was trying to comfort her.”
“I cried for five days. A friend parked next to me, I didn’t even recognize them, I was so distraught,” said Anderson Rowett.
This family won’t be left alone, though. Not only is the mom of Tucker and Maple still around, but other huskies will remain part of the family as well. But that doesn’t make the loss of Tucker and Maple any easier.
“I’m lucky I still have her mates and a cousin, so I still have, like, a husky pack family to hang out with, but they’re not my – they should have never died,” said Stangler.
The person responsible for this incident remains unknown. If you have any information on the identity of this person or anything about this incident, you are asked to call the Lake of the Woods County Sheriff’s Office at (218) 634-1143.
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