An arrest is made in Pueblo, a week after a dog found a human bone under a trailer. 47-year-old Charles Gross is under arrest in connection with the case. He admits to shooting a man in September of 2001, but says he did it in self defense.
Wendie Arnold lives about five houses down from the trailer where the bones were found, she's been there 13 years, and says she's never had anything like this happen before.
Jasmine is a four-year-old golden retriever mix. Naturally, she retrieves objects all the time. "She finds the neighborhood bones, dog toys, trash. She'll bring a lot of different things home in the yard," said Arnold.
So when Jasmine brought home a bone earlier this month, Arnold didn't think anything of it-- until she noticed something different.
"Most of the dog bones are white and bleached out, and this one was a brownish-green color. And when I told her to drop it I noticed it was u-shaped," she said.
As a former dental assistant, she realized it was a human jaw bone. She says she immediately called the Pueblo Sheriff's Office. At first, she was just doing what she had to do-- not considering the magnitude of her dog's discovery.
"It became a little creepier when they came back, did a search and found the rest of the body. That's when it became more uncomfortable in the neighborhood," Arnold said.
She says Charles Gross rented the trailer where the bones were found. She describes him as a quiet man-- a fellow dog owner-- who kept to himself.
"You'd see him a couple times a week, walking his dog," she said.
As for her best friend, Arnold said, "I'm proud of her. I'm hoping they'll identify the body and get closure for somebody."
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forKXRM