Foristell police are investigating following the discovery of a dog hanging from a tree Tuesday afternoon, according to Police Chief Doug Johnson.
Shortly before 5 p.m. Sept. 22, Johnson was made aware of a social media post that a dead dog was hanging from a tree at Foristell City Park.
Police were not initially able to locate the dog based on the social media post. After finding a phone number for the person who made the post, however, police called them and they came to the park and led police to the dog.
Someone used the walking path at the park to access a wooded area, Johnson said, where they used the dog’s leash to hang it from the tree by its neck.
“The dog is a male pitbull, approximately 50 pounds,” Johnson said, adding that while police initially described the dog as black, upon closer inspection it was more of a dark brown color.
The Foristell Police Department does not have its own chip reader, so they requested assistance from the Wentzville Police Department. The dog was found to not be chipped.
While police initially believed the dog had been dead for 24 to 48 hours, after further investigation, investigators concluded it had been hanging from the tree for a week or more, Johnson said.
“We’re waiting on St. Charles County Animal Control to take possession of it for proper disposal,” he added.
Foristell police will also send the dog’s leash to the St. Charles County Crime Lab to see if human DNA can be found, Johnson said.
The police department has not received recent reports of a missing dog, according to Johnson, and stray dogs are rare in Foristell.
Foristell police are urging anyone with information about the dog to contact their department. Johnson said the easiest way to do this is actually to call the Wentzville Police Department.
“Wentzville PD does our dispatching. The best way to get ahold of a Foristell officer is through Wentzville PD, and that would be 636-639-2150,” he said.
While there are no homes in the immediate area where the dog was found, people use the park and pass through it regularly, Johnson said, and someone may have seen something or have additional information.
“The park does stay busy. During the daylight hours, there’s people in and out of here all the time,” he said. He added that the crime was disturbing.
“It really is,” he said. “A sick individual had to do this.”
