WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa man has been accused of fatally neglecting a dog and dumping its body to hide the crime.

On April 28, a witness reported to the West Des Moines Police Department that a dog was locked in a crate covered in its own feces and appeared to be “just skin and bones” at an apartment in the 3900 block of Woodland Avenue. The witness also provided photos of the dog inside the crate to officers.

According to court documents, officers with the WDPD and an animal control officer visited the apartment to try and locate the dog, but the dog’s owner, identified as 27-year-old Michael Alan Wakefield, demanded that they leave.

The following day, officers and city staff arrived at the apartment to execute a search warrant and remove the dog. However, when the officers entered the apartment, court documents say that the dog was nowhere to be found. Court documents also noted that the crate the dog was seen locked in had been broken down and stored behind a TV, and that the area appeared to have been cleaned with a broom, which was found covered in feces next to the crate.

According to court documents, Wakefield was not at the apartment when the search warrant was conducted, so an officer at the scene called Wakefield. During the phone call, court documents say that Wakefield told officers that the dog had been taken to a new family in another state. Wakefield again demanded that the officers get out of his apartment, and the officers and city staff left.

A second search warrant was conducted over a week later, on May 7, at Wakefield’s apartment. According to a criminal complaint, during the execution of this search warrant, Wakefield admitted to officers that the “dog was dead and that he had dumped the dog in a wooded area near a ravine at Raccoon River Park to avoid prosecution.”

The dog’s body was found, and it was determined that the dog likely died because of poor treatment, poor nourishment, and abuse, court documents state.

On Tuesday, Wakefield was arrested and charged with one count of animal neglect with serious injury or death. He was booked into the Polk County Jail on a $2,000 cash-only bond. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 30.

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