This all happened March of 2011.
I had just finished the divorce between Kelly and I.I had taken the baby and moved into the house I had been saving to get since the year prior when I first left her.Kelly never put in any work for us.I would come home to the baby screaming for food and she would just be sitting on the back porch,smoking out of her bong.I eventually learned she was smoking more than weed,meth and cocaine were found hidden in little spots all throughout the house.A little bag of cocaine was found hidden under the mattress of the baby’s crib,and another bag was found under some toys in her playbin.Kelly was too different,I guess.She wanted the opposite of everything she had,and I was just happy to be away from that issue of a relationship.
Raising Edith by myself was another issue.I had a job which was almost an hour drive away from the house,I’d have to hire a nanny or leave her with my mom,which I didn’t want to do because my mom was old enough,and there was so much stress upon it that at some point I just started working from home. Kelly didn’t want to see Edith,she didn’t care about Edith,but she did drop off our dog.Porky,my tall german shepherd.He was tall and built,but he was so gentle with Edith.Edith would cry for the first few nights because porky was laying right beside her crib,guarding her.Porky was just sitting on our doorstep.He didn’t look like anything had happened to him.He wasn’t starved or sick,he was perfectly fine.I brought him inside and called Kelly to thank her for returning Porky,cause she had been holding him sort of hostage for abit.She thought that maybe I would take her back if she kept Porky ransom.I called her,and after abit she answered.
“Hey,Kelly,thanks for returning Porky.He looks well fed too.”
“Huh?oh…yeah.yeah okay..so he’s there?”
“What?yes,he’s here.”
“Good.”Then she hung up.It was odd,but I excused it as her being high.
Everything was fine for three months.Now it was June of 2011,and things had started to change.His barks sounded different,more husky,as if he was coughing,Edith was waking up at more hours of the night covered in oddly shaped bite marks,food,specifically meat,was going missing.So many odd things started to pile up that I actually started to consider something was medically wrong with Porky.
I took him to the vet.We were nearly there,sitting in our truck.Edith was in the backseat,Porky was in the front.Suddenly,in the middle of the highway,right before our exit,Porky jumped out the window into the traffic.I stopped the truck and pulled over,watching him scurry into the woods.Thats when I noticed that he was landing on his paws funny.I grabbed Edith and we walked a couple feet in.I couldn’t see Porky,so I got back in the car and called 911.There wasn’t much they could do besides post something online and maybe send some people out looking.
They didn’t find him.They didn’t find him for two months.Neither Edith or I could sleep for two months.Then,out of nowhere,Kelly calls for the first time in months.
“Hello?”
“Hey,Porkys here,I’ll have a friend drop him off.”
“Are you sure it’s Porky?”
“He was my goddamn dog too,Jack,I know what Porky looks like.”
“Okay.Fine,when is your friend coming?”
“Sometime tonight.Hes shy so he won’t be staying but don’t worry,Porky will be there.”
She hung up on me.I stayed up until 2 in the morning,when the doorbell rung.I answered the door to a tan guy,dressed in a puffy jacket and jeans with these brand new sneakers.He had Porky on a bright cherry red leash.”Here.”
“Thanks.”I grabbed for my wallet.”Nah,it’s okay.”He nodded,waving me off and going back to his car.I brought Porky inside and just hugged him,but then I felt something.It was a bump.My finger danced on it for a minute,trying to figure out what it was.I grabbed Porky and told him to stand still.I started searching his fur.
Porky bit my shoulder.He actually bit me,and he barked at me with this clear,genuinely dog-like bark.It seemed like a warning,almost,or a threat.I could feel blood trickling down my shoulder to my chest.I couldn’t believe it.Porky had never bit me.I brought him upstairs to my bedroom,because I wasn’t going to let him in the bedroom with Edith if he was going to bite.I took a shower,and afterwards I laid down for bed.
I left the door cracked open,incase he needed a drink.At around 2,I heard Ediths wailing and shot up.My door was wide open,and Porky was nowhere to be seen.I walked towards Ediths room,and that door was open too.I suddenly had this wierd feeling.I knew I was going to find Porky in there,doing god knows what to Edith.
I approached the bedroom,and suddenly,the house went quiet.No baby crying,no house settling,I couldn’t even hear wind.My hands trembled as I grabbed for the door and I looked inside the bedroom.
The window was open,the baby was gone,and the skin of my dog was laying on the floor,lacking of a skeleton or organs.
I immediately called the police.An investigation was opened,and at some point around a week later,the police inquired about the baby monitor.
I gave it to them.I wasn’t sure they would find anything on it,I kind of forgot about the baby monitor.It was always on,but it never came of use until then.
Three days later,they called me into the station.I sat in the room,a screen set on the wall,and one of the officers sat next to me.”Just watch.”The video started.
Edith was sleeping,wrapped in her blanket,humming in her sleep.Her mouth was agape,she was huddled in a ball.Then there was some rummaging and grunts,man-like grunts.Porkys paws came into view,in a position i have never seen them before,as if they were grabbing something.His claws grabbed onto the blanket and yanked it off her.She whimpered and moved abit.”Hush.”Goes an odd,husky low whisper.Then there was a zipping noise,a loud zipping.I can’t believe I didn’t hear it.It sounded like someone unzipping a backpack.
Then there was a wierd wet sound against the floor,and these human,rough hands grabbed my daughter and picked her up.she started to loudly wail,wiggling abit.The window opened,and a grown man climbed out the window with Edith.
“Somebody was wearing your dog’s skin like a costume.”
The investigation went on,and I started therapy.Slowly,Kelly stopped reaching out about Edith.
She didn’t do it all that much in the first place.
In 2013,there was a drug bust in Kelly’s frat house.The FBI got involved when they found a barely alive two year old laying in a huddle of cheap blankets in the corner of the bathroom,dirty and starving.They identified her as Edith,and got her treated medically.I was able to visit Edith,and when she was three years old,I was finally able to take her home.
I never truly learned what happened until the official trial in 2015.
Kelly paid one of her boyfriends,who was a heavy addict,to steal Edith.She had him kill Porky,skin him,create a suit out of his skin,and live in my home until he could steal my child.
She was going to keep Edith,but then she started sexually trafficking her for more drugs.
Kelly got arrested in 2015 on charges of child trafficking,possession of illegal substances,and a lot of other crimes.The trial uncovered crimes of Kelly’s that happened throughout our marriage,things I didn’t even know about.
Ediths doing better now,she’s in school and is doing good.She goes to therapy.
Everything’s better now.
2011 was the worst year of my life.