Loudoun County Animal Services today charged a Sterling woman with two counts of felony animal cruelty and one count of misdemeanor animal cruelty.
LCAS Humane Law Enforcement Officers responded to calls regarding a stray dog found roaming near Sugarland Drive in Sterling on Oct. 31. Officers found a microchip on the dog which led them to 70-year-old Sandra Ulrike Landgraf, who they found at an extended stay hotel.
On Nov. 4. Animal services found two additional dogs had been left inside the home for an extended period of time and found the conditions inside the home to be consistent with extreme hoarding. Landgraf said she had not been inside the home since at least the spring of 2024 and that the dogs hadn’t been given food or water since.
The surviving dog, “Elvis,” a 10-year-old Chinese crested mix, is believed to have survived by escaping through a gap in the property’s fence in October.
Chief of Loudoun County Animal Services Chris Brosan said Elvis had likely been able to escape through the gap because of how emaciated he was. Which was also the reason it took the dog so long to leave the property.
But Brosan said Elvis’ survival took more than starving to fit through the gap.
“The assumption, based on the fact that we found the other two dogs deceased in the house, and they were basically skeletons, is that the dog [Elvis] actually fed on the other two dogs after they were deceased,” Brosan said.
Investigators believe Elvis also consumed trash, rodents, and insects to survive.
Director of Animal Services Nina Stively called the case “heartbreaking” and “completely preventable.”
“We always want to support our community’s pet owners, but there is no excuse to move out and leave your pets without food, water, or care,” Stively said.
Brosan said signs of severe hoarding were evident both inside the house and in the backyard.
“We deal with hoarding cases all the time,” Brosan said. “Anything you can think of is saved and it just piles up and up to the point where there’s either no pathway through the house, where you actually have to walk across items, or there’s very narrow pathways that you have to navigate through to get to certain areas of the house.”
He added that courts define hoarding as a mental illness.
Landgraf is scheduled for arraignment in Loudoun County General District Court on Dec. 10.
She faces up to five years in prison for each felony conviction and a possible fine of no more than $2,500. The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of up to a $2,500 fine and a year in jail.
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