Editor’s note: This article may contain disturbing content not suitable for children and/or those who are survivors of violence. Please take care when reading.
An Ellsworth man accused of stabbing and killing his brother’s dog has been charged in Pierce County Circuit Court.
Benjamin Byron Kruger, 26, was ordered to pay $2,500 cash bond Jan. 20 on a felony mistreatment of animals/cause death charge. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 3.5 years in prison and/or fines up to $10,000.
According to the complaint:
At 8:22 a.m. Monday, Jan. 19, police were dispatched to a town of Trimbelle address for a complainant who believed her 26-year-old son had killed his brother’s dog (who she was pet sitting) the night before. She reported finding blood on the floor and a kitchen knife missing from the knife block. The family took the dog to the emergency vet in Oakdale, Minn., the night before thinking it might have been attacked by something outside, but staff there said the dog had been stabbed multiple times. The English Cream Retriever did not survive.
During an interview, the complainant and her husband said Kruger and their 6-year-old grandson were home with them the night before. Around 11:15 p.m., they heard the dog yelping outside. The complainant got up to check on the dog and found Kruger in the kitchen. He said he’d let the dog outside; she told him he couldn’t just leave the dog out there alone. She noticed his shoes were covered in snow and he still had his coat on. He claimed he couldn’t find the dog and went back outside to look.
At that point, the woman found blood on the kitchen floor and noticed a large knife missing. She had seen it the day before in the knife block on the counter. She became concerned and woke up her husband. Kruger allegedly came back in the house saying he’d found the dog dead outside in the backyard. The dog was covered in blood but still breathing and the four family members took him to the vet hospital, but he died enroute.
The woman said on the way home Kruger kept laughing quietly; she also told police has mental health issues and is a compulsive liar. The next day he denied hurting the dog. Kruger told her the blood on the floor was from a small cut on his finger. She became more suspicious when he washed some clothes and his jacket. His hoes were covered in blood and dog hair.
Police interviewed Kruger, who said he had let the dog out the rear door the night before to go potty, then came back inside. He said when he went back out, he couldn’t find him right away but found him lying in the backyard. He denied doing anything to the dog and claimed the blood in the kitchen was from a cut on his finger, which looked old and dried up. He later said he thought someone else had killed the dog. He also changed his story about the blood in the kitchen and said it wasn’t his.
When police examined the alleged crime scene, they found no other animal tracks. They located a blood trail between the rear exterior garage door and the place where the dog had been found. There was a considerable amount of blood on the bottom right of the door and the door’s white trim. Officers also found blood on the home’s siding to the right of the garage’s rear door, on the outdoor grill, on the door handles on the garage exterior and leading into the house, and on the garage floor. They found several chunks of flesh on a carpet runner inside the garage.
The complainants found the missing knife’s handle in the kitchen garbage bin, along with several paper towels soiled with blood. The blade had been broken off. Police went back outside and located the missing knife blade in the snow. It had blood and hair on it, consistent with the dog’s fur.
Police arrested Kruger and transported him to Pierce County Jail. He was scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 27.
