Husband charged after he traps, stomps wife’s pet dachshund to death, Columbus police say
Charles Van Pelt drove his wife to work Jan. 5 and kissed her goodbye, then went straight home and stomped her beloved dachshund to death after trapping the pet in its pen, said witnesses and Columbus police.
Charged with felony aggravated animal cruelty, the 26-year-old now is being held without bond in the Muscogee County Jail, and his wife has taken her other three dogs and moved out of the Britt Avenue apartment they once shared, her family said.
Police said portions of his attack on the 9-year-old, 15-pound dog were caught on surveillance video. It showed Van Pelt calmly walk into the dog’s pen, look down at the pet, close the gate so she could not escape, and then start stomping on the dog, at one point holding onto the chain-link pen to steady himself.
He later picked up an object, raised it over his head, and swung it down where the dog lay, the video showed.
His brother, the couple’s next door neighbor, called Van Pelt’s wife Loren at work and urged her to rush home because her husband was kicking her dog, witnesses said. By the time she arrived, the dog was disfigured, bleeding from its nose and mouth, and having seizures, they said.
Jennifer Reese, a coworker who drove Loren Van Pelt home that day, said the husband seemed unaffected by what had happened. He pointed at the dog, named “Penny,” and told them, “There’s that killer dog,” Reese said.
The husband claimed he injured Penny while breaking up a fight between Penny with another dog in the pen, a 16-year-old chihuahua named Abby, but the two dogs had had shared a kennel for years, and had never shown any aggression toward one another, Reese said.
Reese and Loren Van Pelt’s parents testified Monday morning in Columbus Recorder’s Court, where the husband’s preliminary hearing was postponed, because the jail had him in medical isolation. Judge Julius Hunter heard testimony only to decide whether Van Pelt should be given a bond that could allow his release.
After hearing from Reese, investigating Officer Leandra Goodson and Loren Van Pelt’s parents, Allon and Holly Norrell, Hunter decided against setting a bond, and rescheduled a follow-up hearing for Thursday.
Van Pelt’s wife was not present. “She is still distraught to this day,” Reese said.
Surveillance video prompts complaint
She said Van Pelt’s assault on the dog appeared premeditated: He uncharacteristically offered his wife a ride to work that day, then took her car, saying he needed it because it burned less fuel than his. He dropped her off around noon, and his brother called at 12:07 p.m. to tell her to come home, though she had no way to get there, until Reese offered to drive her.
That showed Van Pelt went straight home to stomp the dog, after dropping his wife off, Reese said.
“He was standing there watching her suffer,” when the two women arrived, she said. She recalled pushing past him to gather the dog in her arms, to rush it to a veterinarian, as the husband reached for his wife to try to console her.
The veterinarian told them the dog could not be saved. Penny “had seizures, brain damage and serious head trauma,” consistent with blunt-force impact, the police officer testified.
Loren Van Pelt afterward returned home, where her mother later found her on her on the ground, weeping. Her parents said they did not want her to remain with her husband after that, so she moved out.
No one called police until Jan. 29, after the wife saw the surveillance video, got copies of the footage, and gave it to Reese, who notified the authorities. The suspect was arrested Saturday, said Goodson, the police officer.
Besides showing Van Pelt allegedly stomping the dog, the video also recorded him taking a heavy glass bowl and swinging it down at the dog, witnesses said. The wife’s mother said she later saw bloody shards of broken glass in the pen.
Posted to Facebook, the video has outraged those who viewed it, sparking a furious reaction.
Bond refused
Goodson testified that the wife told police she and her husband “had been going through a bit of a rough patch,” but their troubles previously had involved no physical abuse.
The wife’s parents said Charles Van Pelt was jealous of the affection his wife showed Penny, a rescue dog she’d adopted seven years ago, intending to give it to her grandmother, who was unable to keep it. She doted on Penny, eventually letting the dog sleep in bed with her, and the husband resented that, they said.
Allon Norrell said Charles Van Pelt complained that his wife “loves them animals more than she loves him.” He asked that the suspect not be released, fearing what Van Pelt might do next.
“I feel like with his attitude toward anybody, and especially them animals, I believe that if you let him out ... he’s going to try something stupid, to be honest with you.,” he told Judge Hunter.
Van Pelt’s public defender argued he should get a bond, as he had no history of abuse involving either his wife or her pets, and the offense involved no firearm, despite its “alarming” circumstances.
Hunter refused, and ordered that Van Pelt have no contact with his wife as the case proceeds.
This story was originally published February 7, 2022 at 2:32 PM.