Local authorities confirmed that both dogs stolen from the owner earlier this month in Waid Park near Rocky Mount were found dead

The county sheriff’s office said that two dogs that had been reported stolen on February 7 from Waid Park near Rocky Mount were found dead on the side of a road about 4 miles away on Tuesday.

On February 7, county resident Terry Michel was walking his two black labs, Caleb and Colby, on a trail in Waid Park. His wife, Rhonda Michel, said that the dogs got away while chasing a squirrel. Michel followed them and said he saw two men put the dogs in an off-white Jeep Grand Cherokee and drive away.

Rhonda Michel said that the men used food to get the dogs into the car, which was parked in a gravel driveway near the entrance to the park.

After the incident, Sgt. Megan Huston of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office said that deputies in the county and police officers in the town of Rocky Mount were told to keep an eye out for the SUV.

In this case, the cameras in the park were not helpful. Even though cameras record every car that drives into and out of the park and the parking lot, the place where the dogs’ owner said they were taken is not in the camera’s view, Huston said.

Since learning about the incident, Ronald Mitchell, who is in charge of the Blackwater District, which includes Waid Park, has asked for more patrols in the park. Huston said that she is telling people who go to the park to lock their doors and put anything valuable in the trunk.

At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the Franklin County Humane Society will hold a candlelight vigil in the park. The nonprofit has been paying close attention to news about Caleb and Colby’s disappearance and has shared information on its Facebook page.

Anita Scott, who runs the Franklin County Humane Society Adoption Center, said that Caleb was just adopted from the center a month ago. She was shocked to hear that they had been taken and then found.

The dogs’ bodies were found Tuesday afternoon near the 500 block of Carolina Springs Road, which is about 4 miles north of the park. Michel said they got a call from someone who had found the dogs and knew they were missing because they had read about them online. Before calling the sheriff’s office, she went to the place and made sure it was Caleb and Colby.

Huston said that when the call came in around 3:15, the sheriff’s office and animal control came to help. The dogs’ ID chips were also scanned to make sure they were the ones that had gone missing.

Huston said that the body parts were taken to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg so that they could be looked at more closely and the cause of death found.

Michel said that killing Caleb and Colby was evil and made no sense. The only thing she could say that was good was that they were both dead together. She said that since Caleb joined the family a month ago, the two couldn’t be apart.

Michel said, “They loved each other until the end.”

For the safe return of the two black labs, there was a $4,000 reward. Scott said that the humane society is now collecting money to offer a reward for finding the people who killed them and putting up a memorial in Waid Park.

Scott said that their deaths were disgusting and made no sense. “Why murder them?”

The Franklin County Humane Society has a website and a Facebook page where people can give money.

Michel also wants to find out who did it and why Caleb and Colby were stolen and killed. “We want the person who did this to be found guilty and put in jail,” she said. “There was no good reason to do this.”

Saturday’s vigil is a way for the community to talk about what happened and show support for Caleb and Colby’s owners. Michel said she will go to thank the community for all the help they have given her during the ordeal. She also said that she wants to try to make the park safer so that something like this never happens again.