Man arrested in death of Toby, the therapy dog shot in Maple Shade

A Maple Shade man was charged Thursday in the death of Toby, the 9-year-old therapy dog found shot in the head just a few blocks from his home last week.

William D. Stroemel, 64, of Maple Shade, faces charges of animal cruelty, unlawful possession of a weapon, concealing evidence, and related crimes, police said.

Stroemel lives on the first block of Fifth Avenue, the residential street near Route 73 where Toby was discovered by his owner, crying in pain and covered in blood on Sept. 17. Police said Stroemel, a heavy-equipment operator also known as “Wild Willie,” shot Toby with an air rifle and then gave the gun to an acquaintance to hide. The dog was not believed to be on Stroemel’s property when he was shot.

Stroemel was initially arrested on weapons charges Monday, and the animal-cruelty charge was added after a necropsy tied the pellet found in Toby’s skull to an air rifle owned by Stroemel. He was being held in the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly, awaiting a detention hearing in Superior Court sometime next week.

Toby escaped from his home between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 17. His owner, Robert Cook, was in his garage when he heard the dog’s sharp cries and raced down the street to find him. Cook, a 72-year-old Vietnam War veteran, found Toby lying near the curb.

He scooped up the dog, a therapy pet to help his post-traumatic stress disorder, and rushed to the vet, assuming Toby had been hit by a car. But an X-ray showed a pellet lodged in the dog’s skull. Toby was alive, but his injuries were too severe. The vet euthanized him that night.

Toby was described as an “escape artist” by Cook’s granddaughter, Marissa. She said people in the neighborhood loved the dog and if he got out, neighbors would return him.

Marissa Cook, 21, an education major at Rutgers, said her family does not know Stroemel. She said the man kept to himself and her grandfather never really interacted with him. But she said her grandfather remembered an instance in which Stroemel told him that if Toby kept getting out, he could get hit by a car.

“It feels good in the sense that we know he can’t harm anyone else and make a family feel the way that we did,” she said. “But ... we don’t get Toby back from this.”

Marissa Cook said her family has not adjusted to life without their furry friend. “When we walk inside, it feels like Toby is hiding because he was always the first one you see when you walk in.”

It’s been especially difficult for her grandfather, she said. “It comes and goes in waves,” she said. “But he cries at least three times a day and just can’t understand it all.”