ST. LOUIS – Internal documents show a different side to the story regarding a fatal dog attack in north St. Louis over the summer.
FOX 2 uncovered the documents in a Missouri Sunshine request.
In September, the St. Louis Health Department said that it planned to kill three dogs that were involved in the July incident. We immediately requested the evidence at the time. After nearly two months, our news department received an internal report in which a city employee wrote that they may have seized the wrong dogs.
The incident in question occurred July 10 in an alley of the Penrose neighborhood.
Dennis Moore, 61, died from what the medical examiner called “hypertensive cardiovascular disease exacerbated by canine attack.” The autopsy notes the only dog connection as “postmortem scavenging injuries.”
The health department said it found the dogs responsible and seized them. It also announced it had probable cause to declare them “dangerous” and that animal control intended to put them down.
FOX 2 asked for the city’s evidence. Seven weeks later, the city provided Citizens Service Bureau reports that contained a particularly shocking line – “Further investigation of this incident has provided no proof that any of these three dogs were involved directly with the incident.” The document also said, “All three dogs will be released back to the owner.”
The owner, who lives on Sacramento, declined to be interviewed, but told FOX 2 he’s getting a different story from the health department every time he calls.
FOX 2 went straight to the health department after failing to get our own answers, demanding to see the impounded dogs. We were stopped by security and told no one from the health department is available to speak.
“Everything is a twist to the story,” Moore’s widow told us in September.
In a phone conversation Monday, Melvina Moore repeated her frustration.
“I’ve been hearing lies from day one. We have no truth about nothing,” she said.
In the meantime, FOX 2 will keep pushing for the health department’s response, and to see the dogs.