Two French bulldogs who were missing for more than a month in Alaska have been found dead inside a pair of crab pots — with their owners believing they were abducted and killed in a sick “personal” vendetta.
Frenchie brothers Yoda and Whiskey were found inside the enclosed crab pot traps on Friday during a routine shellfish pot inspection near Thorne Bay, Alaskan Wildlife Troopers said in an official dispatch.
The 1-year-old pups had been missing since Feb. 13 when owner Kane Martin took them to work with him and his brother at a logging unit also in Thorne Bay — and they unexpectedly vanished, the family told KLTV.
Martin believes the dogs were abducted, he told KTOO.
“The troopers told me they thought it was something personal,” he said of the ongoing investigation.
“I mean, there’s only one person on this island that has any kind of vendetta against me at all and it’s not even that much that I know of. I mean, I’ve lived here my whole life,” Kane said, without elaborating on whom he was referring to.
Troopers are corroborating information from potential witnesses before sharing it with the public, KTOO said, suggesting that there is not yet a suspect.
Authorities threw the crab pots back into the water, hoping the owner would turn up to claim them — but they were taken in the middle of the night, Martin said, meaning the owner remains a mystery.
“Honestly, I’m still a little in disbelief,” Martin’s wife, Esther Martin, told KTUU of their adorable pups.
“They were the sweetest dogs you’d have ever met. They would have jumped in a vehicle with anybody.”
The Martins believed Yoda and Whiskey would return at some point after going missing, but had a feeling something fishier was going on when their weeks-long search went cold, Esther told KLTV.
“The dogs have gone to work with them every single day since we got them back in June. So it was very uncommon of them to disappear the way they did,” she said.
“We were immediately suspicious but had hoped that they would return on their own, and it just took longer and longer,” she told the outlet.
“My brother-in-law [Shane Martin] searched throughout the night. He went back to the same area multiple times after they got done working,” Esther said.
“We left items of clothing, we left their dog beds, we left food. We rode around on the quad for days just searching every road, every muskeg [bog], every trail and they were just gone.”
The Martins have offered a $2,500 reward for info.
“[Yoda and Whiskey] were friendly beyond measure, and when I think about just their final moments, I hope it was swift. I can’t think about it too long because they were so sweet and they were so loved,” Esther told KLTV.
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