Interest widens in Pahrump dog poisoning investigation

Two new developments are reported that involve the recent dog poisonings in the Comstock Park community.

A reward has been established for information leading to a conviction of the perpetrator.

Las Vegas resident Anthony Phillips works in the real estate industry.

Phillips put up $5,000 of his own money as an incentive for anyone with information about who is poisoning the animals.

He learned about the incidents watching Las Vegas news reports.

“I also see the news getting shared with animal groups here in Las Vegas,” he said. “Whoever is doing this, I think is pure evil and needs to be caught immediately. The reward is all of my money. I donate up to $10,000 per year to animal causes anyway, which I have done for multiple years. For the past six months, I have paid for life-saving surgeries for upward of ten dogs.”

Phillips recently visited Comstock Park to gain a better understanding of the community, and to do some basic detective work.

“I had no clue on the variables of Comstock Park but once I got out there, I realized that there was really only one main access point in,” he said. “I also noticed a lot of people were out in their yards sitting on their patios. When I drove by, people kind of looked at me wondering who I was and what I wanted.”

Additionally, Phillips actually compiled some data as he mapped out homes where the dogs were poisoned.

“Research suggests that those who intentionally abuse animals are predominantly men under the age of 30,” he said. “We can assume the person lives in Comstock Park so we mapped out the homes where animals were poisoned and see if there are any correlations with people with animal, domestic or child abuse convictions in that area.

“We can also assume this person does not have a dog, which would rule out another 30 percent of the community,” Phillips said. “Given the above, we should be able to narrow our search.”

Lucy Karp, president of the Comstock Park Homeowners Association, said the second development regarding the poisonings relates to several recent obscene phone calls to the office, after hours.

“After Misty closes the office at 1 p.m., this older man leaves horrible messages on our answering machine,” Karp said. “He just leaves these god-awful messages with the filthiest words saying that he was sick of those damn barking dogs. He also (cursed), but he doesn’t leave his name. I think what he doesn’t know is the fact that we have caller ID.”

As a result, Karp said the Nye County Sheriff’s Office was contacted about the calls.

“We saved the messages and called the Nye County Sheriff’s Office and gave them his name and phone number,” she said. “We don’t know if that’s him, but that’s the only lead we have had so far. Misty checked it out and learned that he was calling from the area where the dogs were poisoned. I hope that is a good lead. It always happens after the office has closed.”

Karp also said she and several Comstock Park board members are somehow catching some of the blame for the occurrences.

“We have some residents that are actually blaming us, but we don’t know what we can do,” she said. “We have had security guards in the past patrolling the community but it doesn’t do any good because if the security guard is on one side of the park, chances are something will happen on the other side of the park.”

“There haven’t been any more poisonings that I’m aware of lately,” Karp said. “At least no one has called in. Being an animal lover myself, this whole thing just makes me sick, because I have dogs.”

Phillips, meanwhile, said he plans to continue his effort until the individual responsible for the poisonings is arrested.

“We will make sure that this perpetrator sleeps with one eye open and make it very lucrative for someone to turn them in,” he said. “We are data mining the addresses and we will match them up with criminal records. Animal abusers typically have other issues going on inside their heads. I don’t think it’s the first rodeo for this guy.”

“I think we can narrow it down to a few streets,” Phillips said. “We understand that there was no poisoned meat found in anybody’s yard that did not have a pet, so that cancels out a lot of addresses. I have plenty of time and plenty of money, so it is bad news for this guy.”

Phillips also noted that word is quickly spreading throughout Southern Nevada regarding the poisonings.

“Most people didn’t even know there was a reward so we allocated funds towards a flyer that will hit Comstock Park this weekend,” he said. “We now have a Facebook campaign that has now been seen by more than 17,000 Pahrump residents in just four days.”

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes