A 30-year-old Colorado man is on the run after being accused of brutally beating to death his roommate’s dogs and dismembering one of them.
Police have issued a warrant for Matthew Stephen Dieringer, of Pueblo, in connection with the senseless slayings, the Teller County Sheriff’s Office said in a release.
(Teller County Sheriff’s Office)
Animal control officers and detectives investigating the sickening case believe Dieringer bludgeoned to death a 7-year-old Australian Cattle dog named Suka and killed and dismembered another dog called Hayoka.
The animals’ owner, who shares a dwelling with Dieringer, has not been named.
A necropsy established that Suka died from blunt force trauma, according to the release.
Dieringer was last seen earlier this week near Manitou Springs, about 30 miles east of Teller County, just outside Colorado Springs, authorities said. He may have dyed his hair a darker color to conceal his identity.
Dieringer, who is wanted on two felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, was still at large Wednesday afternoon, according to a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators have warned anyone who sees him or has information about his whereabouts not to approach him and go straight to the police.
The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, signed into law in November 2019, makes certain heinous acts of animal cruelty a federal crime.
The recent legislation prohibits extreme acts of cruelty, including intentional crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating and impalement inflicted on “living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians.”