Officials search for dog killer in Thoreau

THOREAU, N.M. (KRQE) - Authorities consider it a severe case of animal cruelty after a young dog was found dead with his neck snapped in half. Now officials are looking for the person responsible.

The dog, named Jayden, was a rescue. His owner saved him after he was abandoned in a school parking lot.

“He and I just instantly bonded,” Angela Cerci said. “He looked into my eyes he had these cute floppy ears this really goofy run and he just always wanted to be around me.”

His owner Angela Cerci rescued him in April near Thoreau, Just north of Grants.

Jayden stole her heart with his spirit.

“He’s so much fun super high energy and then he would just crash out really hard sprawl out on his back,” Cerci said.

On Tuesday August 26th, something tragic happened.

“It’s one thing for one of your animals to pass away but to come upon his body and see it that atrocious his spine is sticking three inches out of his neck it just kills you,” Cerci said.

Cerci was out of town when she got a call from her dog sitter that Jayden was dead.

She believes someone snapped his neck killing him instantly and left him to rot in the mesa near her home.

“Pretty much the vet said that in her 25 years of practice she'd never seen anything like this before,” Cerci said.

Cerci is searching for answers.

“Nobody heard anything nobody saw anything and with Jayden he did have this high pitched kind of girlie screech if he was nervous or scared or something so you would have heard it,” Cerci said.

Jayden did not have any bite marks so the veterinarian ruled out an animal attack.

Cerci says the same type of thing happened last November. A different dog was found with his head sliced from ear to ear.

She saved him.

“It’s also the mystery behind things it's still eating at me I know somebody knows something i know somebody,” Cerci said.

A police report was filed but that has not gone anywhere.

There is a $1,000 reward for anyone with information who can help solve Jayden’s death.

The Gallup Humane Society and animal control are helping with the case.

Whoever is responsible for the animal's death could be charged with extreme animal cruelty.

Cerci says the Gallup Humane Society paid for the autopsy. New Mexico Dogs Deserve Better is also helping with the case and so is Soul Dog Rescue .