Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - These heroes wear fur coats! PET HEROES SAVE THE DAY!

Episode Date: December 24, 2021

Heroes come in many shapes and sizes. These heroes wear fur.Joining Nancy Grace today: Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta Ga www.angelaarnoldmd.com  Chris Byers - former Police Chief Johns Creek Georgia, 25 years as Police Officer, now Private Investigator and Polygraph Examiner,   www.chrisbyersinvestigationsandpolygraph.com    Ray Caputo - Lead News Anchor for Orlando's Morning News, 96.5 WDBO Wendy Patrick - California prosecutor, author “Red Flags”www.wendypatrickphd.com  Joe Scott Morgan - Professor of Forensics Jacksonville State University, Author, "Blood Beneath My Feet" featured on "Poisonous Liaisons" on True Crime Network   Angie Wood - “The Atlanta Dog Whisperer” Dog Behaviorist, owner US Canine, specializing in treating and rehabilitating dogs with aggression, fears, phobias and  behavioral  issues . www.uscanine.com   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. First of all, Merry Christmas. What a day around our world. And today we put murder and mayhem aside and we focus on something good. Heroes, but not just ordinary heroes. Pet heroes. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Let's start off with one of my favorite pet heroes, Killian. Listen.

After moving to Charleston last year, Benjamin and Hope Jordan needed to find a babysitter for their then seven-month-old son, Finn. It didn't take long for the couple to find someone. We felt like Alexis was a good fit at the time. They hired 21-year-old Alexis Kahn for the job, who came up clean in a background check. However, their confidence in Kahn didn't last too long. About five months into her being our babysitter, we started to notice that our dog was very defensive of our son whenever she would come in the door. He was very aggressive towards her,

and a few times we actually had to physically restrain our dog from going towards her. With me, an all-star panel to break it down and put it back together again. California prosecutor, author of Red Flags, and the host of Today with Dr. Wendy on KCBQ at WendyPatrickPhD.com. Renowned psychiatrist joining us out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, Dr. Angela Arnold. She's at AngelaArnoldMD.com. Former police chief, Johns Creek, 25 years on the force, now PI and polygrapher at Chris Byers Investigations and Polygraph.com. Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State University.

Author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon, Joseph Scott Morgan. Special guest joining us today, the Atlanta Dog Whisperer. Dog behaviorist with US Canine, specializing in treating, rehabbing dogs. And you can find her at USCanine.com. Our special friend, Angie Wood. But first, to Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, WDBO Orlando. Ray, I will never forget when I hired the first babysitter to be with the twins in New York while I would go to HLN. And typically I would stay with them, bathe them, feed them, get them ready for bed.

I would cut out at 530, fight the cross town traffic and very often, depending on what programs I did that night, wouldn't get home till 1030 or 11 o'clock at night. First of all, I tricked the whole place out with baby cams, ran background checks on everybody and was so freaked out. I actually ended up getting two nurses, one nurse to watch the other nurse while she watched the twins. Okay, that's how freaked out I was because of all the stories we hear. But seemingly in this case, the dog knew what humans couldn't figure out. Tell me about this little baby. Tell me about the dog.

Let's start at the get-go. So they hire a babysitter. Who is she? Her name is Alexis Kahn, Nancy. And like a lot of folks, a lot of parents. Well, did you say Kahn? It's in C-O-N? C-H-A-N, Kahn.

Okay, go ahead. Yeah, and, you know, the parents, they have a means to do background checks. And they searched for her. They were responsible, and it came up clean. So what they thought is they found a really responsible person to care for their child. But that wasn't the case. You know, I will never forget. Joe Scott, I think you were there when I went to CrimeCon. It was being held in Indianapolis.

And I was going to go moderate a panel about an ongoing investigation. And I let my husband pick the babysitter. Of course, I talked to the babysitter first. But then I found out it was from care.com. And I nearly went through the roof because I covered a case where a care.com babysitter had hit a baby. Well, this woman couldn't that we got, I run out of the panel and say, I have to take a bathroom break, run to the hotel room and spy on the babysitter. She was wonderful. She was perfect. They were playing some kind of a board game. So I popped in like I had just stopped by. Fake. And she said, you know what? There's a beautiful walkway along the water. I'm like, no, nowhere near the water. Stay in this room. Do not leave this room. But my point is, you can run a background check. You can do everything possible and you still may not find out about the babysitter. You're absolutely right. You never know what someone is up to outside of this kind of, you know, faux electronic field that we have out here. We can throw out all these sensors and try to detect what somebody is actually doing. But you can't look into their hearts.

You certainly can't look into their minds. You know what's interesting, too? Dr. Angela Arnold joining us today, psychiatrist out of Atlanta. Dr. Arnold, the family, the mom and dad didn't pick up on anything. But the dog, Killian, would bare teeth and growl and lunge toward the babysitter. That's a big indicator. I always say listen to your hunches because they're not just hunches. You're picking up on something that even your mind may not be able to decipher, Dr. Angie.

And you know what, Nancy? I also, just for everybody that's listening out there, I also believe that as much as you feel like you trust this person that you've hired, don't really ever trust anybody completely. It's a baby that can't speak. So, yes, you have to watch what your dog is doing. You're fortunate enough to have a dog. You have to watch what your baby's doing. Does the baby recoil a little bit when this person comes into the room?

But never trust anybody completely. You know, that's a good point because, Wendy Patrick, I would watch the twins, and when the babysitter came in, they acted happy. And I think that's a really good indicator. I like Dr. Angie saying to watch the way the baby responds or the way, in this case, the dog responds, Wendy Patrick. That's exactly right, Nancy. That's what my book is about, Red Flags. You can tell the dynamic between people by the way they respond to each other. I mean, think about the cases that you've prosecuted, the stalkers, the domestic abusers. It's the way someone tenses up, the way their eyes look different,

the way their muscles tense. They react differently depending on what somebody else is like and what that reaction is like. Ashton tells you a lot about the relationship. And we think that dogs can't pick these things up. They absolutely can. This was a baby bodyguard in this case. And basically, kudos for Killian. This is the kind of thing that ticks parents off as to what the strangers they bring into their homes are really like. To Angie Wood, the Atlanta Dog Whisperer at USK9.com, we were just listening to our friend Harv Jacobs at WCSC Live 5. He says that at times the mom and dad actually had to restrain the dog from lunging toward the babysitter. What does that tell you, Angie Wood?

Well, it definitely tells me that the dog knows that that lady was evil on the inside, even though she projected kindness on the outside. You can't lie to an animal they don't speak so therefore they feel you they don't they don't listen to your words they they feel who you are who your soul is and if my dog doesn't like somebody and they're typically friendly which is what i read about this dog then by all means my red flag is going ting ting ting and i'm listening well that's tough for us because fat boy who was billed to me as a thoroughbred dachshund at the pound so not thoroughbred anything outside of me uh who feeds him every day my husband the children and my mother who lives with us he growls and barks at everybody unconditionally. Oh, he's nervous.

Yeah, he's nervous. And Jackie, he does not. He doesn't growl at you, does he? No, he does not growl at Jackie. Everybody else, everybody, they can't all be bad people. So he's not that perfect of a barometer. So what is it that the dog knows that people don't know, Angie? Well, they have a nonverbal language, so therefore they

feel your feelings, they feel your vibe, they know what's going on with you, and if you're sideways, they understand. But if your dog is typically nervous and growls at everybody, that's kind of normal for your dog. Not nervous, aggressive. He is not nervous. He gets down. Have you ever seen Snoopy in the comic strip? He gets down in Snoopy mode. His little legs bowl out. He gets like that far off the ground. His tail points out one way and his nose points the other way. And he like kind of creeps toward the poor, unsuspecting delivery person. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Guys, we are talking about real-life heroes that wear furry coats. We're talking about pet heroes, and we're starting off with a babysitter. This is a sweet dog, Killian, who goes into attack mode every time the babysitter comes around. Take a listen again to Harv Jacobs WCSC Live 5 News. The now suspicious parents had a plan. Hope suggested they place an iPhone under the couch and let the phone record what happens while they were at work. When the couple got home they listened to the tape and were horrified by what they heard. It started with cussing then you hear slap noises and his crying changes from

a distress cry to a pain cry. And I just wanted to reach through the audio tape, go back in time and just grab them up to know that five months I had handed my child to a monster, not knowing what was going on in my house for that day. Charleston City Police arrested Khan a few weeks later and she confessed to the crime. Yesterday, she pleaded guilty to assault and battery. The sentence, one to three years in prison. As part of her plea, Khan also will be placed in a child abuse registry, which means she will not be allowed to work with children. All thanks to hero dog Killian. And the Jordans say, had our dog not alerted us to trouble, had my wife's instincts not said we need to make

something happen, it could have been Finn that was killed. You never know. And I'm looking at photos of this little boy right now. And to imagine that this little baby was slapped and mistreated. We find out that the 22-year-old babysitter, Khan, had to serve at least one year of a three-year sentence and, as you just heard, register as a child abuser. Take a listen to the parents speaking out. Khan is a very laid-back dog. He'll bark when someone comes to the door,

but, you know, once they come in and he knows that that person is okay he's fine you know he's shy he stays away but after after a while Killian actually started to um after the barking he would actually be aggressive towards her the hair on his on his neck would raise and um towards the end I actually had to stop him from going to sports, and he's never done that before. Wow. What's really interesting here is that your dog instantly became protective of the baby

and was thus able to alert you. It's interesting how dogs have such an amazing connection. Right. He definitely was protecting the youngest one of the pack. You were hearing Benjamin and Hope Jordan speaking to Emotional Molo TV on the dog, believing that the baby was the youngest member of the pack. Straight back to Angie Wood, the Atlanta dog whisperer at USK9.com. What does that mean, Angie? Well, this was abnormal behavior for this particular dog, who tended to be a little reserved, yet friendly.

And to behave in this abnormal way tells us that the dog has had some association, some experience that was not delightful around this human. Thank God the parents listened and really were in tune to their own instinct to put the iPhone under the sofa. And I'm right on with you that every square foot or inch of your home should be covered by a camera when a stranger is watching your baby. Let's turn our attention away from hero dog Killian to another hero dog, an abused shelter dog, much like our dog, Fat Boy, that we got at a pound, along with our cat, Cinnamon, named by my daughter. And, of course, believe it or not, there are rescue guinea pigs, Abby and Chloe. Believe me, it's true. I clean their cage every morning at 6.55 a.m. An abused shelter dog, Peanut, now held as a hero? How did it all start? Take a listen to Mark Cowman at TV6.

Just after 11 a.m. Friday, Delta County sheriffs responded to a call about a child found alive in a ditch in Rapid River. The child was found naked and taken to a child was found in the house. The child was found alive in a ditch in rapid River. The child was found naked and taken to a nearby neighbors house to wait for authorities to arrive. Child's parents were

subsequently located and the child was removed from the home. The child is is is fine and as well is in good hands as we speak. There was one other child that was located in the home, and that child was removed as well. And to my knowledge, both those children are together in a foster care type home. Prosecuting attorney Phil Strom said that the investigation into the situation is just beginning. It is just beginning.

Straight out to Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, WDBO. What happened? Well, Nancy, it was a chilly day. This was around Ray Caputo, lead news anchor, WDBO. What happened? Well, Nancy, it was a chilly day. This was around Escanoba, Michigan. That's the northern part of the state, really, right around Lake Superior. And it was 32 degrees outside. Wait a minute. I've got to tell you something, Ray.

I've been to some of the Great Lakes. I hope to go to all of them. And I tried to go down to the water. And it was so cold and windy. I mean, these lakes, I mean, it looks like an ocean. You can't even see the end of it. They're so huge. And the wind was so powerful coming off. It's like walking along the ocean at storm time. It nearly knocked me over. The wind was so fierce near the Great Lakes, at least that Great Lake. So I'm sorry, I got sidetracked. I was just thinking about a child being near that windy lake. Go ahead.

Yeah, well, Nancy, I grew up just off Lake Ontario. And at this time of year, it looks like, part of what you're saying, it's hell warmed over because it's different. It's not like being by the ocean in the winter. It's the waves and the cold and the wind. It's very inhabitable. But this is the condition of this little girl. It was around 11 a.m. She got out, and this dog just starts barking instinctively and had a feeling that something was outside.

So little Peanut starts running around, and the owner opens the door, and the dog just bolts off. I'm looking at a picture of Peanut right now, and Peanut is a perfect name for this dog. He's a mixture of honey blonde and light brown, and he's got beautiful amber-looking eyes, literally with partially a pink nose with brown on either side. And it may be a girl dog because the dog is wearing a pink collar.

I'm just guessing. But it's amazing to me how this rescue dog, Peanut, an abused shelter dog, is being held as a hero for alerting her brand new owners to a naked three-year-old girl found curled up and barely alive outside. You know, to you, Angie Wood, the Atlanta Dog Whisperer, dog behaviorist at USK9.com, a lot of people pay to have a thoroughbred dog, specifically pedigreed I know I have a family member that loves the let's see the is it King Charles Cavalier

or Prince Charles Royal yes and there's a Royal in there there's a Royal Cavalier and then there's a regular Cavalier I don't know the diff but they're into the royal Cavaliers. And I got to tell you, they're so sweet. We went for the mutt variety.

And, you know, the dog has, our dog has become attached to his Christmas sweater. And I've never been one for dressing dogs in people clothes. But you know, we can't get it off of him. So I guess he'll wear it till next Christmas. Long story short, what do you think is the difference between a shelter dog and a pedigree dog, if any? I mean, Peanut apparently was abused and was rescued at a shelter. I don't see, quite frankly, any difference except for the reason that we bred dogs, right? So purebred dogs, we humans bred them to do specific tasks for us. But a mutt, you know, is a blend of all of these dogs. And a nose is a nose is a nose, you know, and a dog is a dog so little peanut understood that something

was going on outside of our home in our environment that something was different that there was a human out there and she says that she smelled it and immediately alerted people because just instinctually in her brain she understands something's wrong this is not normal this is not only what happens Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about a hero shelter dog who had been horribly abused and taken to a shelter that saves the life of a three-year-old little girl found naked, curled up in a ditch near death. Now, the owner says that Peanut had been acting strangely all morning

and had been running up and down the stairs of their home, barking and yelping. Now, if that were normal, the owner may not have noticed. But even Fat Boy, who goes crazy all the time, wouldn't do that. He would not run up and down the steps, barking and acting crazy. You know, Angie Wood, I've always been highly allergic to cats until I took in a stray that I couldn't get anybody else to take when I was a prosecutor living in midtown Atlanta. And the poor little kitten would come up crying hungry. And I could tell it was just so thin. So I started feeding the cat solid black.

I named it Coco. And Coco, you know, became one of my lifelong loves. I had Coco for 19 years. And one night, Coco, out of the blue, it was a boy cat, jumped up on the bed where I was working on a case, of course, like midnight, and teetied on the bed. I'm like, Coco, what are you doing? He had never done anything like that at all. And I called my then husband. I said, do you know what Coco just did?

Got on the bed with me while I'm working and T.T.'d right in front of me. And he went, well, you need to put Coco outside. I'm like, you know what? I'm taking Coco to the emergency room because this is so out of character for this cat to have ever done. And guess what? The cat was sick. So what I'm saying is for this dog to be running up and down the stairs barking frenetically was a sound of alarm to his human owners. Indeed, it wasn't a sound of alarm. It's like something is awry here. Something's not normal. So that dog definitely smelled and felt that baby in the ditch out there and knew that something was awry.. Something's not normal. So that dog definitely smelled and felt that baby in the

ditch out there and knew that something was awry. The dog feels, you know, as we all always heard, dogs know when we're afraid. That's the most common thing. But they know when we're whatever, you're happy, you're sad, you're anxious, abnormal, anxious or nervous. So a baby being in the ditch outside the house is not normal. So the dog is in a little bit of a alert, panic, please pay attention state. And that's what all the pacing and the barking and the yelling is about. So bringing attention to it is very much about pack order. Hey, something's wrong over here. Please help. And that's the communication that they tend to send out. So they're not as logical as we are, but they're very instinctual. So they pick up on these things way before we would. We can't smell a baby outside the house.

You know what I've said a million times to Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor of Forensics, Jacksonville State? The best witness I ever put on the stand in all my years, hearings, bond forfeitor hearings, bond hearings, jury trials, bench trials, you name it, was a dog. It was a drug dog. It's the best witness I ever put on the stand. Because dogs don't lie, Joe Scott. Sure. No, they don't, Nancy. And, you know, the beauty part of this is that this little baby that this dog found,

and to me, this is a little baby, this dog found and to me this is a little baby's three-year-old little naked girl laying in a ditch can you imagine in that cold and this little this little dog was a shelter dog nancy you don't know what kind of life this dog had had beforehand and you know i'm uh i've got a soft spot a spot for dogs we rescue dogs in our home i've got three right here in the room with me. And, you know, the beauty part is this, is that this dog's life was saved by somebody. Okay. And this dog in turn saved this little girl's life. Nancy, this little girl was suffering from hypothermia, I guarantee you, and would have been dead. And I can promise you this, would have been dead. We know that a ditch is wet anyway. Can you imagine a ditch in northern Michigan?

32 degrees, and we're not even talking about ground temperature now, 32 degrees, naked, shivering, cold, and that dog had the sense to look out the window and alert on that little child out there in that ditch and wound up saving this child. And one of the beauty part of this whole thing is that when the EMTs got to this little baby, she said one word, and that was doggy. And that's amazing to me. The man allegedly wraps the shivering little girl in his sweatshirt, takes her inside, calls police.

The weather that day in Delta County had reached freezing temperature. He says, quote, the little girl was barely hanging on for her life. By the time the ambulance and police arrived, as Joe Scott says, the little girl said one thing, doggy. So Hero Peanut saves the day, but let's don't start. Let's don't stop there. Let's go straight on to puppy. Take a listen to this little boys reunited with his family after a neighbor found him walking around in North city's Baden neighborhood. To her surprise, he was with a dog who never left his side. The neighbor went above and beyond to make sure that that child got home

safe. And by the way, the little guy there, Taylor, says that he really liked the pit bull who was like a guard for him. He kept saying puppy while he was being reunited. We're told St. Louis City Police might be adopting that guy. What a dream come true. If this hero dog ends up getting adopted. We're talking about, number one, a hero dog nicknamed Puppy and Kamorian Taylor, a tot who goes missing, St. Louis, Missouri. Straight back to you, Ray Caputo, WDBO. What happened? Well, Nancy, I got a little girl and I remember the day that I figured out she could open the door. And I think that's what happened with little Kamorian. You know, he looks to be about three or four. He's a young little boy.

And apparently he had gotten out of the house, and nobody knew that he was gone, and it was for quite a while. So he just took a little trip down North St. Louis streets, and it wasn't long before a lady with two small dogs noticed him. He had no shoes on. Guys, you were just hearing our friends at Fox 2 St. Louis, but now take a listen to Blair Lede at Fox 2. This precious toddler, Kamarion Taylor, is back in his dad's arms after he spent the morning on

the move. Residents of the Baden neighborhood spotted him early Thursday morning walking in his PJs, seemingly protected by this large pit bull. She says, well, that dog goes with this baby. He's out here with no shoes on. Do you know this baby? It happened at around 8 o'clock near McLaren and Broadway. This neighbor, who wishes to remain anonymous, was walking her own dogs. She switched gears to make a heroic move. I knocked on the doors all the way up and down the street. I went down Broadway, knocked on those doors. No answers. No one that I, who did answer, they didn't recognize the child.

For hours, she walked and knocked. So let me understand exactly what happened, Ray Caputo. The little boy had wandered out in his PJs and he was being protected by a pit bull. Yeah, Nancy, the pit bull seemed to follow him. Now this wasn't his dog. It just seemed to be a dog with that instinct that this was a small child in trouble. But but the little dog pretty much mirrored little Kamarion. Guys, take a listen one more time to Blair Leday Fox 2. Taylor's father finally recognizing his son on a social media post and sprinting into action. Soon, the happy baby was home.

He looked well taken care of. You know, he was very neat, very clean. He just didn't have the shoes on. No word yet on how the baby boy got out of his home, but this neighbor says there was no way she could have turned a blind eye. Because it takes a village and children especially are innocent. A missing boy found wandering the St. Louis streets and I've got to tell you, I mentioned earlier that I'd taken the twins on an RV trip to see the Mount Rushmore. Well, we also went to St. Louis to see the Arch En Route. And walking around in downtown St. Louis is full of pitfalls. You know, it's amazing to me, to Chris Byers, former chief of police, Johns Creek, this pit bull dog was guarding the boy and it wasn't his dog.

Yeah, that's pretty amazing. You know, it made me think as you were talking about that at my house when my son was little and learned to ride his bike, there was a neighbor dog that we used to play with all the time. And we had this long driveway. He would ride his bike and there were these trees at the end. And that's what we would make him turn around because there was a neighbor dog that we used to play with all the time and we had this long driveway he would ride his bike and there were these trees at the end and that's where we would make him turn around because there was a busy road there and this dog when my son was on his bike would run down to those trees and literally block him from going any further he would have to turn around so it was just an amazing thing that this wasn't even our dog. So you've got to think this is even more amazing that this dog doesn't even know this little boy and just sensed that he was in trouble, that he was in danger. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.

Guys, we are talking about brave and wonderful heroes, pet heroes. What's not to love? And this pet hero really stands out in my mind because the child he saved wasn't even his child. Reportedly, a young boy reunited with his dad in St. Louis after a neighbor spots the tot wandering the streets of St. Louis outside in nothing but PJs with a large pit bull by pit bulldog by his side, walking through the streets in PJs and somehow wandering out of his dad's home all on his own. Straight out to you, Wendy Patrick, California prosecutor and author. What do you make of it? I'll tell you, I'd like to know how he got out of the house the way he did without anybody seeing. You know, he's way too young to have just been curious and wandered off

into the wilderness. This is one of those cases where you have to keep eyes on. I mean, Nancy, you know that more than anything. You're very protective of the twins. Most parents are. So you'd probably want to know who was supposed to be watching this child. But thank God that an angel in the form of that pit bull basically probably sensed something was wrong and was just so protective instinctively over this child. Talk about a happy story and a happy ending. Now that little boy, his life saved by a pit bull dog nicknamed Puppy. And the neighbor, woman who lives in the neighborhood, says she was quote, shocked to see a pit bull dog seemingly guarding the little boy until he is rescued. The pit bull did not know the boy, but they know each other

now. But let's switch gears now to hero dog named Petey. Listen. Hi, my name is Heidi and my dad was missing at 6 30 when I arrived home. He had left at 4 p.m., so he should have been home two hours prior to when I got home. And I drove around for a few hours looking for him, and I finally reported him missing to the police department at 10 p.m. An off-duty sergeant was hunting, he came across my dad's dog Petey. You are hearing the voice of Heidi Rapsarno. This is Fred's daughter speaking to the New York Post. Straight out to you Ray Caputo what happened? Nancy you know we hear a lot about missing kids

but it's not uncommon for for elderly and Fred was um he was driving in a wooded area, and he got stuck. And from there, things started to go downhill. Fred got lost, and it was hours and hours. People were searching for him. So it was a pretty scary situation. Now, we were talking about a senior who goes missing. My mom, who has just turned 89 years old, lives with us. And I can only imagine, well, actually, I've gone in her room, and she wasn't in there.

And I looked in her bathroom. I looked in her closet. I looked all around the house, the laundry room, the kitchen, and then going back toward the other end of the house into the twins' room, trying to find her. And that's a feeling like none other. It's like when there is a missing child. Explain, Dr. Angela. Nancy, when anybody loses a child, even for a brief second, everything that could possibly happen to that child goes through your mind. Everything. There's immediate, there's an immediate adrenaline. There's an immediate sense of, oh my God, I'm never going to find this child again. Because Nancy, the fact of the matter is

the child is missing and you don't have a clue of where to start. And all you know is that child is gone. And that's what it feels like when a senior goes missing. Not that they have the mind of a child, but out in the elements. And this guy, nearly 80 years old, out in the elements alone. They can't find him. So back to you, Ray Caputo. How did he go missing? Fred was driving in a wooded area, and he got stuck. And from there, things started to go downhill.

Fred got lost, and it was Petey. And I think Petey's aptly named after the little rascals because it looks just like that terrier in there. Well, Petey starts running along the trail, and he was spotted by an off-duty police officer. And Petey ended up leading that off-duty police officer to Fred. So Fred's got his little pup to thank for alerting someone to his whereabouts. Take a listen to Fred's daughter speaking to our friend, the New York Post. The off-duty sergeant noticed the dog. First he thought it was a coyote, then he realized it was a dog because it was dark. And he went toward the dog and noticed that the leash was

attached to her and then he noticed tracks in the ground and followed the dog and she basically led him to where my father was. They found him in the middle of a remote area of the woods. He is an outdoorsman so it's that those kind of roads are familiar to him, but at the same time, he was lost. This hero dog leads an off-duty cop to his master. Now, I want you to take another listen to our Cut 37. Heidi Rapsarno, this is Fred's daughter speaking to our friends at the New York Post. So, Petey, she's been with my dad for about 10 years. She was a rescue, and we think that she's a mix of Labrador and pit bull.

We call her the gentle giant. She's just a sweetheart, and my dad nicknamed her Tiger because she chases all the animals away up in New York where he lives. I'm just thinking about, once again, the dog being a mixed breed, basically a shelter dog. Straight back to Angie Wood, the Atlanta Dog Whisperer, dog behaviorist, and you can find her at USK9.com. Wei-Anne, what happened here? Well, you know, a dog is a dog is a dog. So that knows the instincts kick in. It doesn't really matter with the breed. So instincts, I tell humans all the time, quit being such a

darn person. Like, listen, tune in. What does your gut tell you? Should you pay attention? And this is what dogs do every day. In this case, a 78-year-old elder, almost 79, a month or so away from being 79, goes missing. If it were not for his dog, a rescue dog, a mixed breed named Petey, he would still be missing today. You know, I want to go out to Joe Scott Morgan. We talk about heroes all the time, but some of these heroes were rescued by people, and then they turned around and returned the favor. You're absolutely right, Nancy, because I've got to tell you, some of the darkest days I've ever had have been, you know, I have to say assuaged by the fact that I have rescue dogs.

Because, I mean, I've been through dark times in my life, working with the dead all of my life, having to, you know, see these horrible things. But, you know, every single time I come in, I come home and I come back from having been in these environments. My dogs are always there to comfort me. And that's why I'm such a big supporter of rescuing dogs. I believe that the dogs rescue us as much as we rescue them. We, you know, me and my family, we support no kill shelters. We go out and, and try to help with dogs all the time. We try to support people that are doing free vaccination moves, that sort of thing. So we strongly believe in animals and that animals can change families' lives. They've certainly changed ours. Keep this number handy. It's a toll-free number for the Humane Society. 866-720-2676. Repeat, 866-720-2676.

Nancy Grace, Crime Story, signing off. Merry Christmas. This is an iHeart Podcast.