What I see as I am speaking with the man on the road:

Upon arriving at home, I have several more questions for Mrs. Baumgart. Most importantly, I wanted to know if it had been snowing on the day she'd discovered the dog. If it had, had she seen any tracks?

I call the home of Mrs. Baumgart, but, unfortunately, I get her answering machine. I leave my name and number and ask her to return my call.

Typical terrain around the Baumgart residence: (photo taken 1/18/07)

Snow has been falling. We pull into Judith Baumgart's driveway; there are no tracks in the snow. I approach the door and notice fresh dog urine in the newly-fallen snow on the porch. (She has two small dachshunds that live indoors.) The urine is so fresh, the snow around it is still melting. Despite the fact that someone simply *must* be home, no one answers my repeated knocks.

This is what I see when no one comes to Mrs. Baumgart's door, when, clearly, someone has recently let a dog out:

We leave, and I have a gnawing feeling that I have spoken to Judith Baumgart for the last time. This feeling proves to be correct.

Our attention turns to her son, Larry Baumgart. Does he raise dogs? What kind? Where? We travel to nearby Indian Glens in hopes of finding his home, or, at the very least, someone who knows him. We knock on several doors in Indian Glens, but we find no one who is familiar with the name. No one recognizes the pictures of Thor.

Frustrated, I call my father in Grayling. I have been keeping him up-to-date on our search, and I share my suspicions: I believe there is a possibility Larry Baumgart had something to do with the dog found in his mother's car port, and I believe there is a chance Mrs. Baumgart knew all along who the dog belonged to. Most disturbing, however, is the idea that, somewhere, there could possibly be more dogs, starving, neglected, and abused, somewhere. My father agrees that things don't seem right.

In the afternoon, we return to the ASCC. I place a call to Crawford County Animal Control Officer Gail Foguth, and reach her voice mail. I leave a message and ask her to return my call. I also call Crawford County Undersheriff Shawn Kraycs and leave a message for him to call me back. We return home after a long day, tired, frustrated . . . and worried. Thor has suffered *miserably* for a long time. What if there are others?

There is a message from Undersheriff Kraycs on our anwering machine when we return home, but when I call, I miss him again. Already, my wife and I are making plans to travel to southern Crawford County in the morning and continue our search.

The flyer I create for distribution on 1/19/07:

On our way to Grayling, I reach Crawford County Undersherrif Shawn Kraycs on the phone, and he agrees to meet with us as soon as we arrive in town. Less than an hour later, we are in his office, where I detail my suspicions and ask him to look into the matter. He promises he will. We leave his office, and we head to a local printer downtown to make copies of the flyer. Upon seeing the photos of Thor, the business donates their services, and run off 100 flyers for us. We spend the rest of the morning posting flyers around town.

I still have not heard back from Judith Baumgart, nor do I think I ever will. Our time searching the area around her home is over, and the hunt is on to locate Larry Baumgart, and find out if he does, indeed, raise dogs, and eliminate him as the person responsible for Thor's condition.

We are about to head out to Indian Glens to resume our search for Baumgart's house when I receive a return phone call from Crawford County ACO Gail Foguth. While we are speaking, she receives a call from Undersheriff Kraycs, who is following through on our conversation from earlier. Foguth agrees to meet with us at 1:30. During this meeting, I detail what I suspect: that Mrs. Baumgart could very well know where the dog came from, and that I think her son might have something to do with it. I ask her to follow up with Mrs. Baumgart, and she says that it is sometimes best to "wait it out." "Once Thor gets better," she says, "maybe someone will recognize him and provide some information." I reiterate that if Thor came from someone who is raising dogs, there could quite possibly be, at that very moment, more dogs in just as bad of shape. Again, she says she thinks it would be best to be patient. She has Thor's collar in her possession, and she says that when Thor gets better, they can put his collar back on him, post his picture on PetFinder, and perhaps someone will recognize him. Gail allows me to see and photograph the collar, which smells horrible.

Thor's collar:

It is now late in the afternoon, and we decide to postpone our trip to Indian Glens. My wife and I are frustrated that not only have we *not* been able to find out what happened to Thor, but we feel that our suspicions are strongly justified . . . and we're not being heard. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that something's not adding up with Judith Baumgart's story of her 'finding' the dog in her car port. It's driving me nuts, thinking that there might be other dogs like Thor, at that very moment, suffering needlessly.

I spend most of Friday night searching for Larry Baumgart on the internet. I find nothing: no address, no info whatsoever. I search for anyone raising dogs Crawford County, Michigan. His name is not returned in any of my searches.

A phone call the following morning, however, is about to change everything.

JUMP TO:

Home/Welcome Page

LABS & LIES - Chapter 1: A Shot in the Dark

LABS & LIES - Chapter 2: It Doesn't take a Rocket Scientist

LABS & LIES - Chapter 3: And Then There Were Six

LABS & LIES - Chapter 4: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

LABS & LIES - Chapter 5: Rattling Cages & Furious Rages

LABS & LIES - Chapter 6: With Labradors and Justice for All

LABS & LIES - Chapter 7: Black Friday

LABS & LIES - Chapter 8: Puppygate (UPDATED 5/27/07)

LABS & LIES - Chapter 9: GUILTY! (UPDATED 6/22/2007)

LABS & LIES - Chapter 10: Justice . . . Crawford County Style (added 7/11/07)

e-mail the author of this site