Several families in Auglaize and Champaign counties want to know what happened to their beloved pets’ remains.
Their pets were taken to a mortuary to be cremated, but from there they went missing.
News Center 7’s Katy Andersen spoke with one pet owner, who shared how saying goodbye to a pet is hard.
“Painful, it’s very painful,” said Sarah Wedlake, who recently lost her cat Chloe she had for 17 years. “It was like losing one of my family members because she sat up in my recliner every day with me. It was very painful to see her die.”
The heartache didn’t stop there. Wedlake thought her cat was going to be cremated. But now she doesn’t know what happened.
“It’s just been a nightmare for all of us,” she said.
Tonya Jordan is the owner and executive director of His Hands Extended Sanctuary in St. Paris, where Wedlake brought her cat.
Jordan said a couple months ago, a man named Jacob P. Kirk came to her clinic, claiming he was starting a new business called J&K Pet Mortuary. She said he presented all the right documents so she paid him hundreds of dollars to cremate six animals, including Chloe. But now, several weeks later, the animals are still missing.
“We don’t know. We don’t know where our clients’ babies are and it’s a very brutal and painful thing to not know what has been done with animals that you have had in your care and have loved and nurtured, trust someone to do what is right and find out they are doing absolutely wrong,” she said.
Jordan’s clinic is not the only to have fallen victim.
Another vet in Auglaize County said they had a pet owner who found their dog’s remains dumped over a hill on Kirk’s property.
Auglaize County Municipal Court records show that Kirk, 18, was charged by the Wapakoneta Police Department with theft by deception, falsification in a theft offense and tampering with records, all misdemeanors, for an Oct. 9 incident. He is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 13.
It’s not clear whether he will face any other charges.
“He needs help. That’s all I can say. He needs help because he has done so many people wrong,” Jordan said.
Wedlake said she just wants her cat's remains back so she can finally have closure.
