Latest animal cruelty case follows recent dog shooting and a dog stabbing in July

The last thing Dena Linnell expected to hear when she answered the phone early on Halloween morning was that her family’s pet pygmy goats had been slaughtered.

“The police said they needed someone to identify them,” Linnell said. “Then they told me they were dead.”

Sometime that night, three teens cut the lock on the Linnell’s goat pen in the backyard of their Salton Street home and took the goats — a female named Daisy and a male named Duke — to the nearby grassy area surrounding Northlake Elementary, according to Lt. Paul Wimmer of the Tooele City Police Department.

A neighbor, whose fence boarders the school yard, awoke to what he thought was children crying. Not able to see exactly what was going on, the man got in his vehicle and drove around to the school, where he noticed three teens with goats, Wimmer said.

The man called police, but the teens fled the scene before officers were able to respond. All that remained was the bloody bodies of the two 12-inch tall goats.

“Both throats had been cut, one to the point of decapitation,” Wimmer said.

Police were able to connect the goats back to their owners because of a collar found around one of the goat’s neck.

“They were family pets. They are easily trained and bond really well with children,” said Linnell, who is nervous to go outside now. “It’s disturbing to think that someone would do something like this. This had to be planned.”

Wimmer said the incident appears to be an isolated one, and one that is difficult to investigate due to a lack of evidence.

“It’s not common,” Wimmer said. “There’s no indication what the motive was. There’s no evidence but the two goats. It was obviously someone who knew that the goats were there. Who or why they would even do it — we have no idea at this point.”

Wimmer said there is no evidence the goats were slaughtered as part of any type of satanic ritual.

Linnell said she’s worried that the teens will strike again. She and her husband are installing a security system at their home, and are hoping to eventually relocate.

“My concern is that the next victim could be a child,” Linnell said. “People who do this type of thing hurt people too. I want Tooele to know that someone is out there. This is dangerous. Who is next? It’s not like these were farm animals. These are family goats who have collars and tags and who wouldn’t hurt a soul.”

Linnell said the goats can be noisy at times, but she and her husband had contacted neighbors before they purchased the pets to tell them to please let Linnell know if the pets became a noise nuisance. She doesn’t believe that the goats’ bawing, which often sounds like a human baby, was to blame in their killing.

A few days prior to the goat slaying, a hound dog was shot in the head on 1000 West in Tooele, where it was kenneled with other dogs.

“The [owner] had been out there at 10 p.m. on the 23rd [of October] and the next day at 5:30 p.m. he found it dead,” Wimmer said, adding that police believe the dog was killed overnight. “There was some .22 caliber cases found in the area.”

Detectives and animal control are still investigating both animal cruelty cases.

“You just can’t kill a pet for no reason,” Wimmer said.

Back in July, police were alerted to a dog stabbing on Seventh Street in Tooele. The dog had been let out with another dog routinely — with it’s owner present — before turning in for the evening. The dog rounded a corner out of the owner’s view, made a yelping sound, and ran back to the owner covered in blood. The dog had suffered a 1/2 by 1 1/2-inch wound to the chest. Police still have no leads in that case either.

Wimmer encourages anyone with information about any of these cases to contact police.

“We need witnesses,” Wimmer said. “Someone who knows something about it that would help point us in the right direction.”

Jamie Belnap: jamieb@tooeletranscript.com