Update to case: "Brady Pfeiffer, Jeffrey Everitt and Michelle Lorish cleared of butchering pit bulls; case heads in 'different direction'"
PENNSYLVANIA -- Police used social media and a tip from a 911 dispatcher to help find the owner of a pair of pit bulls found dismembered near a set of Lower Saucon Township railroad tracks, according to Northampton County Court records.
The dogs were beaten to death in early December before being left on the tracks, where a train then hit the animals, police said. But authorities said the bodies of the animals were left on the tracks to "make it appear" the deaths were accidental.
Brady Pfeiffer, Jeffrey Paul Everitt and Michelle A. Lorish — all of Easton — are charged with cruelty to animals, disrupting or preventing operation of a train, defiant trespass, highway obstruction and conspiracy charges.
Lorish owned the dogs and conspired with Pfeiffer and Everitt to get rid of the animals, police say.
Authorities said they received an anonymous tip about the dead dogs and said one was "dismembered at the neck" and the second was "dismembered at the midsection."
A necropsy determined that both dogs had been killed by "blunt force trauma" to the head, police said.
According to court records:
On Dec. 5, police were flagged down by two unidentified people who work for an area animal shelter. The workers told police they had received an anonymous tip about the dead pit bulls on the tracks near the intersection of Riverside Drive and Redington Road.
Police and the shelter workers searched the area and found the dead dogs.
A Northampton County 911 dispatcher said the dogs matched a description provided by Lorish, who had called Dec. 4 saying she wanted to get rid of her two pit bulls.
Police said they used Lorish's social media page to get pictures of her pit bulls. One of the photos showed a dog wearing the same collar found on one of the dead dogs.
Lorish met with police and admitted that she conspired with Pfeiffer and Everitt to get rid of her dogs. Pfeiffer also gave a written statement to police that she conspired with the others in "getting rid" of the dogs.
Authorities say Everitt had agreed to speak to police about the incident, but later refused.
Pfeiffer, 40, Everitt, 44, and Lorish, 35, are all free after posting $1,500 bail. Everitt and Pfeiffer live in the 1100 block of Ferry Street and Lorish lives in the first block of North Warren Street, authorities say.
(Allentown Morning Call - Mar 3, 2016)
No comments:
Post a Comment