Dogs found shot dead on southern Md. farm; owners search for killers

Police are on the hunt for the person who shot and killed two dogs on a farm in southern Maryland.

Bear and Benelli loved water, so when they went for a stroll on their farm on Friday, their owner Cindy Thorne kept walking while they splashed around.

"We always do this," she said. "This is a routine thing and they always come up and they meet us."

But this time, they didn't come back.

"My hope was that somebody took them in as a Good Samaritan and was going to report, 'Hey, I have these two labs,'" said Thorne.

But there was no Good Samaritan. It was quite the contrary. On Monday, her son Tyler broke the news.

"I couldn't even understand what he was saying," Cindy said. "He was so hysterical crying that all I knew was something awful happened, but I didn't know what happened."

Tyler had found Benilli dead.

"It is definitely very disturbing," Tyler said.

"Somebody shot her right here between the neck and the shoulder, blew her shoulder out and exited below in the pelvis, so it totally transversed her whole body," said Cindy.

They also found Bear dead soon afterwards.

Cindy and Tyler think whoever shot the dogs was an experienced marksman.

"Whoever did this is very proficient with firearms to do the exact same mortal shot on both of the animals," said Cindy.

Cindy said perhaps the worst part is "you can't articulate how awful it is to see your kids just totally devastated, burying their own dogs and finding the dogs killed on your own property."

They have spoken with their neighbors.

"I have people that said, 'Yeah, I did hear something come from that direction, but I didn't pay much attention to it because it was Fourth of July weekend,'" said Cindy.

The Charles County Sheriff's Office is investigating.

"I just hope they put themselves in our shoes and if they know anything about it, that they would step up with information," said Tyler.

"Now I'm in fear of us out on the farm working, us out on the farm walking, my animals being out there," said Cindy. "Why did they do this and are they going to do something more? It's just awful."