A 33-year-old Dauphin County man was charged with multiple felonies after police said he abandoned a home for months, killing a cat and letting two dogs freeze to death in the basement.
Pennsylvania State Police were sent to a foreclosed home in Washington Township, along the 3900 block of Route 209, around 4:10 p.m. Jan. 16 after an employee of a real estate company found two dead dogs, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The employee told troopers that Tyler J. Brown, of Millersburg, who previously owned the home, was served an eviction notice on Jan. 14, but nobody was at the property when a sheriff arrived.
Troopers entered the basement and found what appeared to be a husky and German Shepherd, which they described as “frozen stiff” with sunken stomachs and visible ribs, the affidavit said.
Police found the husky about 10 feet from the rear basement door before discovering the German Shepherd lying on a pile of laundry in a separate room of the basement.
The basement was also filled with more than 50 piles of frozen animal feces and had clothing, trash bags full of garbage, empty alcohol containers and other debris scattered on the floor, police said.
A dead calico cat was also found beneath a dresser in an upstairs bedroom, according to the affidavit. It is unclear if the cat also died due to freezing temperatures.
Troopers searched the rest of the home, which had bits of food and plastic bags scattered on the floor, and determined there was no heat or running water.
Neighbors confirmed Brown owned two dogs and one cat and told investigators they had not seen him or anyone else enter the residence for at least two months. Before Brown abandoned the property, neighbors noted they never saw him take the dogs outside and heard the dogs howling about a month before.
Police determined the husky and German Shepherd found in the basement were alive and well on April 30, 2022, after verifying Brown’s Facebook profile through his most recent PennDOT picture.
Brown is charged with three counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and three counts of neglect of animals, according to court documents. As of Thursday, Brown is no longer incarcerated in the Dauphin County Prison.
His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 5.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
