Search For Missing Puppies Ends In Tragedy
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The search for the six stolen puppies in the far, southwest suburbs has ended in a tragedy.
Four of the six puppies were recovered, but three of them were found dead Friday outside of a Target in Warrenville, according to Deputy Mike Mrozek of Kendall County Sheriff's Department. One puppy is being evaluated by a vet.
Every day after work, Cindy Benson and her husband do routine chores on their farm, CBS 2's Lauren Victory reports from Newark.
One chore is dinner time for their litter of puppies. Benson was preparing their food, while her husband was opening the door to the puppies' pen. Thursday night something was off.
"There was absolutely no sound," Benson said.
Benson's husband looked around and said to her, "oh my gosh, I don't see any puppies."
The puppies feeding time turned the Bensons in a frantic.
Six Black Mouth Curr puppies, not even seven weeks old had vanished.
The Bensons looked everywhere, driving through the field and contacting neighborhoods. No one had seen the pups.
That is when Benson decided to turn to Facebook. Her post reading: "PLEASE HELP! Please keep your eyes and ears open for any information regarding the person or persons that felt they had the right to trespass on our property and steal all 6 of our puppies. We are absolutely sickened by this and plan to do everything we can to find them. A police report is being filed. Please feel free to share this post and help us find our Blackmouth Cur puppies. Pictures of each below. There are 4 females and 2 males."
With the help of a savvy teenage, Benson was pointed to a post with puppies for sale. Aleydis Sukey Viorato, who has since deleted her Facebook account, posted puppies for sale, thought to be the same puppies stolen from the Bensons. She was trying to sell the puppies, listing them as a different breed of dog.
"The minute I saw it was this puppy right here," Benson said. "We have one female that is very unique."
Benson and the Kendall County Sheriff's Department compared photos side by side.
"We're pretty confident that these were the puppies that were taken," Mzorek said.
Benson took the Facebook a second time sharing a photo of this woman's post asking for help to find her missing puppies. Her post read, "THANK YOU to everyone that shared our post about our puppies being stolen. We are overwhelmed by everyone's concern and help. We have not gotten the puppies returned but have a lot of people looking into it. We are keeping our hopes up that we get our pups back safe. We are not giving up! This is them but we are trying to get an address or phone number from her and she's deleted her Facebook accounts. Her last known address she no longer lives at. If anyone can get this info that'd be great! We are so sickened by this and can't believe someone came on our property and stole from us. Thank you again to each of you!"
There is still a hunt to find this puppy thief. The investigation is headed by detectives in the Kendall County Sheriff's Department.
