ILLINOIS -- The foul odors that a landlord and police encountered when they entered a south side house last week preceded their sad discoveries.
On dog, then later a second, were found dead, possibly by starvation, in the home where they apparently had been left alone and largely unattended for several months, a police spokesman said Monday.
Discovery of the first dog on Nov. 24 in the home at 1509 Howard Court prompted police to wait for Regina Robards, 43, to return to the one-story residence she had been renting. She was arrested when she arrived there at 8:30 a.m. Friday, said Pekin Public Information Officer Mike Eeten.
Robards quickly was booked into jail on a misdemeanor charge of criminal damage to property, according to jail booking records, though Eeten said police cited her for misdemeanor animal cruelty.
The dog, described by Eeten as a young mastiff, was in plain sight on the living room floor of the home, he said.
“It was extremely emaciated,” and lying dead in the home that was filled with animal waste.
The home’s owner, identified in Tazewell County tax records as Loretta Conklin, summoned police there Monday. She said Robards had been renting it since at least early summer and the landlord apparently had not entered it for months, Eeten said.
Robards posted bond within three hours after her arrest Friday morning — but not before the landlord and police discovered the second deceased dog in the home, underneath a baby crib.
It had been dead long enough for skin to decompose around its skull, Eeten said. “I guess it was just a horrible sight.”
Robards was arrested again shortly before noon when she returned to the house to retrieve belongings, Eeten said.
He said he didn’t know whether the landlord’s discovery of the first dog came from eviction proceedings against Robards, but Robards apparently had stopped living regularly in the house shortly after its utilities were shut off for lack of payment in July, Eeten said.
The landlord said she understood the mastiff remained in the house then. Robards told her she returned regularly to care for it, but the mastiff appeared underfed when Robards visited the landlord’s home with it in October, Eeten said.
Then why didn't she call animal control if the mastiff puppy looked skinny???
Robards was booked into jail again Friday on a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to a companion animal, Eeten said. She posted $750 in cash bond Saturday and will appear in court on both charges Wednesday.
(PJ Star - Dec 1, 2014)
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