Possibly from marshy hiding spot, mystery shooter kills family’s dog on home’s deck near Mankato

Someone fatally shot a dog on the deck of a home near Mankato last weekend not long after the family received a note threatening to kill the pet if the barking continued, officials said.

The killing of Lily, a medium-sized, mixed-breed dog, occurred shortly before 6:30 p.m. Saturday in South Bend Township, according to the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office. No arrests have been made.

Two weeks ago, a threatening note was left outside the home on Neubert Lane and on the property of another dog owner nearby that warned them “to keep their dogs from barking,” Sheriff’s Capt. Paul Barta said in a statement.

Alyssa DeBill wrote on Facebook that her eight-year-old “Lily Anne was the best dog in the world, and there’s nothing you can do to change my mind.”

DeBill, who lives with fiancé Preston Fleischer in the 300 block of Neubert Lane, said that Lily, two other dogs and their sons were at home at the time of the shooting while she and Fleischer were visiting a friend.

“Our 10-year-old called my fiancé hysterically crying and screaming that Lily was shot and bleeding,” DeBill told the Star Tribune.

She said the boys were “only feet away from the doors to the deck on the second story of our house” when the gunfire hit Lily in the chest.

The Sheriff’s Office told her that investigators “have an idea” that the shooter was in a marshy ravine when taking aim at Lily from roughly 40 feet.

DeBill said that Lily “would only bark if the stray cats, wildlife or people or cars were coming up to our house. ... We live at the end of a dead-end road ... in a secluded area with lots of trees. Our closest neighbor is at least 100 yards away.”

A neighbor reported hearing two gunshots. The notes and surveillance video have been collected in hopes of finding the shooter, Barta said.

“We are all absolutely heartbroken and devastated,” DeBill said in her Facebook posting. “She truly was the best girl.”

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact the Sheriff’s Office at 507-304-4863 or report anonymously through Crimestoppersmn.org.