Minnesota: Libby Osterbauer, 24, who runs Close to Home Canine Rescue is accused of breaking into a woman's home, stealing her Miniature Pinscher named Ducky Momo, stuffing him into a pillowcase and then stomping and drowning him at a wildlife refuge

MINNESOTA -- A Minneapolis pet rescue worker who has a fixation on another woman broke into her home twice and kidnapped, tortured and killed her dog, authorities say.

Elizabeth Osterbauer is accused of torturing, drugging and drowning Shelly Byzewski's little pet named Ducky Momo, according to court documents.

The victim in the case, Shelly Byzewski, said Monday that she had met Osterbauer at a dog rescue agency where Osterbauer worked, and that Osterbauer developed romantic feelings for her. Byzewski said when she did not reciprocate those feelings, Osterbauer began stalking her.

“She just got obsessed with me,” said Byzewski, 41. “She’s crazy. She’s mental.”

Byzewski said that when her dog, a 3-year-old miniature pinscher named Ducky Momo, disappeared last year, “I suspected her immediately.”

Byzewski searched for months for her little dog.

"She [Osterbauer] helped me hang up posters,” said Shelly Byzewski. “She told me things like, ‘we gotta keep looking’, ‘somebody has got to have him’, ‘people get attached quick’, ‘hang posters’, which I was already doing.”

Osterbauer burglarized Byzewski's home in December 2015 and in June of this year, according to authorities.

During the first break-in, Osterbauer entered Byzewski's home by using a hidden key, according to a witness. It was then that Osterbauer allegedly took little Ducky Momo, and she is believed to have taken another dog belonging to Byzewski as well.

Osterbauer, 24, took the dog to a state park or wildlife refuge, where she stomped on Ducky Momo and drowned the canine, according to authorities.

That witness told police she was present with Osterbauer during the killing of the dog, which Osterbauer “tortured, drugged, and killed.”

Another witness told police she was present during the dognapping and said Osterbauer took the dog to a state park or wildlife refuge and killed him by stomping on him while he was tied inside a pillowcase and then drowning him in a marsh, according to the complaint filed Friday in Hennepin County District Court.

Yet another witness said Osterbauer offered him and other friends $1,000 “to do a job” at the house, the complaint said, but the witness told police they refused. That witness said Osterbauer took “a blanket, vet records and other things that meant something to her” in the burglary.

Following the second break-in, a friend of Byzewski's, who was checking on the Minneapolis home, found kitty litter "strewn all about," according to the court documents. In the bathroom, the toilet had been "plugged" with the kitty litter, and water from the toilet poured onto the floor and all over the home.

Byzewski had been out of town at the time of the second break-in because she "had to get away," according to the Star Tribune.

A friend of Byzewski told authorities that Osterbauer had "romantic feelings" for her, and Byzewski never returned them.


"I told her I was never going to feel the same way," Byzewski told the Star Tribune. "She'd say, 'That's OK. That's OK.'"

Osterbauer, who runs Close to Home Canine Rescue, according to the Star Tribune, was charged with multiple counts of burglary and cruelty to animals. She was ordered held in lieu of $200,000 bail, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Court records show that Osterbauer was convicted of a misdemeanor charge in 2015 of having multiple dogs at large in Sherburne County.

(NY Daily News - Dec 19, 2016)