Dogs killed by burglars at Florida home

PHOTOGRAPHER: Peter R. Barber

Denise Krohn of Florida on Thursday holds a picture of her two dogs killed when her house was broken into and ransacked.

The empty television stand in the living room doesn’t bother Denise Krohn nearly as much as the corner of the kitchen where she found one of her dogs dying Wednesday night.

The dog, Kirby, was lying on the linoleum floor in a pool of blood that had already spread to the refrigerator when she came home from a shopping trip around 8:30 p.m. He was a 2-year-old Goldendoodle, a warm and personable hybrid of golden retriever and poodle.

“He would throw himself at you and just melt,” Krohn said Thursday evening. “All he wanted was to be loved.”

She wouldn’t stand in the kitchen where she found him. And while she occasionally gestured to the living room, where her other Goldendoodle Quigley was shot, she never looked out there. The carpet was much less forgiving on the memory than the linoleum of the kitchen.

The dogs were shot during the course of an apparent burglary, according to police. One shot each. Police found .22 caliber shells on the floor, which they’ve sent to the New York State Police crime lab for testing.

Krohn was gone for about two hours, during which time a fresh, thin layer of snow had fallen. She saw no tracks as she entered the house, a white one-family home on Route 30 near Sulfur Springs Road surrounded by farms and fields in the town of Florida.

At first, she wasn’t sure what to make of the scene she can only describe as “horrific.” She thought Kirby, young and energetic, had run into the cabinet, maybe knocked down some glassware and cut himself.

She senselessly, tearfully demanded of him, “What did you do?”

Then she noticed the open cabinets, the missing laptop, the bare stand where the television used to be. She picked up the phone, and it was dead. Fearing someone was still in the house, she locked herself in her car and frantically called the police, who arrived within about 10 minutes.

The burglar or burglars had taken the electronics, some costume jewelry and the lives of the family’s two dogs.

“For what?” Krohn said. “A quick fix? I’m devastated.”

Police know little about the crime at this point. The burglar or burglars entered the home through an open door, shot the dogs and stole some items, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

No suspects

They do not know if the crime was random or if Krohn was targeted, nor do they know how many people may have been involved. As of Thursday evening, there were no suspects identified in the investigation.

Krohn, a longtime technology teacher in the Greater Amsterdam School District, lives at the house with her husband and two sons, none of whom were home at the time.

By Thursday, her house was filled with friends and family, some of whom had been there at 3 a.m. scrubbing floors and carpets.

Krohn planned to stay at her sister’s house Thursday night. They were thinking of tearing up the carpet, but she had a hard time imagining feeling comfortable in her own house again.

She refrained from tough, vindictive talk on Thursday. She did not want to lower herself, she said.

“I just hope that someone will hear this message, they’ll talk,” she said. “If someone’s offering them a 40-inch Samsung, I hope they’ll think twice. If they’re wearing my wedding band, look at the inscription.”

Each year around this time, one of her sons customarily throws a townwide party called Cabin Fever, she said. This year, they’re planning to turn it into a fundraiser for the Animal Protection Fund in honor of their dogs.