Where are our dogs?
Police search for five pets amid fears they died in care of sitter
‘My beautiful babies are never coming home’
A DOG-sitter who told clients their five pets had run off during a walk is at the centre of a police investigation amid claims the animals are dead.
Louise Lawford, 47, was yesterday accused of giving the distraught owners ‘false hope’ after insisting their dogs vanished in woods six weeks ago after being spooked by gunshots.
But one, Becky Parsons, said she had been informed on Monday evening that the animals had died. The 39-year-old is the owner of pug Pablo, eight, and Jack Russell-pug cross Maggie, six.
The other dogs said to be dead are pugs Charlie, three, and Ralph, five, and French bulldog Jack, 18 months. In a further twist yesterday, police said they were investigating if the discovery of a dead dog on a beach in Hastings, East Sussex, could be connected to the case. Miss Parsons, of Erdington, Birmingham, posted on Facebook on behalf of the three owners. She wrote: ‘We are unable to say where the confirmation came from or how our loved ones... died as doing so will potentially jeopardise the investigation and recovery (of the animals’ bodies).’
Miss Parsons later told a reporter she had been informed by two non-police sources that the dogs were dead but refused to elaborate.
The search for the pets featured on social media when they were dubbed the Tamworth Five – a reference to the hunt for two pigs which escaped an abattoir in 1998 – after they went missing near the Staffordshire town.
Miss Parsons said: ‘We were terrified we were going to find them dead, starved or dehydrated.’
In an earlier Facebook post aimed at the dog-sitter, she wrote: ‘You let us have false hope. You let hundreds of people join us in a desperate search.
‘My heart is shattered. My beautiful irreplaceable babies are never coming home. It’s taken five weeks to get the truth. Five weeks of torture and agony.’
Jack’s owner James Egan, 61, contacted police 24 hours after Mrs Lawford called on June 23 to say his pet had gone missing.
The asbestos removal worker had left Jack with the dog-sitter in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, for the first time to take a weekend break with his wife Liz, 53.
He said: ‘She had a side yard with a fence around it and a back room for the dogs as well as a double garage, where they slept. It seemed very professional. There is a lot of chitter-chatter on Facebook but we are just waiting for the police to do their work.’
Mr Egan, of Kingstanding, Birmingham, said he had accepted the explanation when Mrs Lawford told him his pet was missing.
But when he found out via Facebook that four other dogs had also vanished, he contacted Miss Parsons before going to police.
He also got in touch with Ralph and Charlie’s owner, April Lock, 28, of Streetly, West Midlands. She said on Tuesday: ‘All we know is they did die in the dog-sitter’s care. I am broken. We always had hope they would come home.’
It has been claimed online that Mrs Lawford’s pug Freddie had also died in the mystery incident.
She has taken down her Facebook page and could not be contacted. A neighbour said the mother-of-four left her semidetached home in February after the break-up of her marriage but had still run her business there.
A West Midlands Police spokesman said: ‘To date, none of the pets have been found and we are still investigating this as an alleged theft. Owners have not been contacted to say the dogs have died.’