PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida man was taken into custody after his recently adopted dog was found decapitated and floating in a plastic bag off the coast of a west-central Florida park, according to law enforcement authorities.
Domingo Rodriguez, 66, of St. Petersburg, was identified by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office as the suspect in the brutal case. He was arrested May 15 and charged with cruelty to animals and improper disposal of a dead animal.
The sheriff’s office provided the following investigative details that led to Rodriguez’s arrest:
On May 14, 2024, at approximately 6:45 p.m., deputies assigned to the Patrol Operations Bureau responded to the area of East Beach at Fort Desoto Park for reports of a deceased dog wrapped in a plastic bag.
When deputies arrived, they located a male bulldog mix with its head decapitated, floating in the mangroves. Pinellas County Animal Services scanned the dog for a microchip, identifying the dog as a 4-year-old bulldog mix named Dexter. Deputies learned the suspect, 66-year-old Domingo R. Rodriguez, adopted Dexter from Pinellas County Animal Services on May 10, 2024.
Deputies spoke with Rodriquez at his residence, where he admitted to adopting Dexter and told them that Dexter must have run away overnight on May 10th. Rodriquez admitted to traveling to Fort Desoto Park on May 11, 2024, and provided deputies with several inconsistent statements.
Deputies arrested Rodriguez and charged him with one count of Animal Cruelty and one count of Disposal of Bodies of Dead Animals.
Furthermore, surveillance cameras captured Rodriguez driving his pickup truck in the area of Fort DeSoto Park on Saturday with a cooler in the back. This is where the dog was discovered, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Rodriguez’s wife told investigators that Dexter was alive when she went to bed Friday night, May 10. When she awoke Saturday, her husband was not home and the dog was missing, according to the news outlet.
Rodriguez was booked at the Pinellas County Jail on the aforementioned charges last Wednesday, May 15. He later posted bail of $5,150 and was released, WSOC-TV reported.
It’s unclear when he’s expected to make his first court appearance.
The sheriff’s office said the investigation remains ongoing.
