Jackie Luca received a text message about her missing dog.
She was hopeful at the time, but the message was the beginning of a nightmare that has continued for several weeks, involving a stranger standing outside her home late at night and a phone number connected to a murder suspect. .
“It's like I'm in the middle of it,” Luca said. “But you know, where is my dog?”
Rocco, Luca's 2-year-old Rottweiler, disappeared outside her Pasadena home on February 1 when she let him out for a morning walk.
“I walked to the driveway and he was gone,” Luca said.
So she did what many pet owners do. She covered her neighborhood with Rocco's flyers and his phone number.
That's when the texts began.
Someone messaged him and told him they had found his dog. They sent him pictures of Rocco and told him that he was now in Palm Desert, about 120 miles east of Pasadena. When they called her, Luca said she could hear a dog crying in pain.
“In a way it has broken our family,” Luca said. “People may think they're just dogs, but they're part of our family.”
She said she called Palm Desert police to come with her to the address, but Rocco wasn't there and the person at the house didn't know what she was talking about.
Then he received another message from the person who claimed to have his dog. They wanted $500 and said Rocco was going to a farm. They gave him more directions, but nothing went well.
And from there things became more confusing.
Luca received a message from a second phone number about the dog. It also included an address. She shared the phone number with police, who said they traced it to a man wanted for murder.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has now become interested in the case.
“They contacted me very quickly, wanting me to meet with this guy,” Luca said. “In the back of my head I thought, 'Oh, they're doing this for my dog.'”
The number was linked to Eduardo Sánchez, a man wanted for allegedly killing 14-year-old Iván Villareal on August 10, 2021, Luca said.
Sheriff's Department homicide investigators said there was no additional information to report regarding the Sanchez investigation.
Meanwhile, Luca continued to receive text messages and photos from Rocco, and sheriff's investigators encouraged her to respond.
“The detective said, 'Maybe he likes you. Maybe we can use that to attract him,'” Luca said.
Los Angeles magazine first reported on Luca's ordeal. Since then, 14-year-old Chihuahua Buddy, a Dodger fan and Pasadena resident, has passed away. She believes he died of a broken heart after Rocco was robbed.
And the pain hasn't stopped. Luca continues receiving messages. A recent one claimed that Rocco was dead and asked if he wanted his fur.
At one point, Luca's teenage daughter messaged one of the people who claimed to have Rocco and tried to appeal to his humanity. That person sent pictures of a naked man in response.
To add to the mystery, Luca says a man appeared outside his house late at night several times. He tried to open the front door and even mocked Luca's security cameras. He called police during one of the incidents, but he was gone when officers arrived hours later, he said.
One of his neighbors is convinced he saw the man before and that he was the one who stole the dog, Luca said.
Pasadena police are trying to verify if there is any connection between the man and the people who claim to have taken Luca's dog.
One night, the man came back outside his house, Luca said. Concerned for the safety of her daughters and her own, she called the police and sent a message to the detective working the case. But again the man was gone when the police arrived approximately three hours later, according to Luca.
Pasadena Police Lt. Tim Bundy said there were multiple angles investigators could pursue in the investigation, adding that it's unclear if the person who showed up outside his home has anything to do with the missing dog.
“At this time, there is no correlation between the disappearance of the dog and the people who contacted her,” Bundy said. “It's difficult to determine if the people texting her are trying to scam her for a reward or if they even have her dog.”
Now Luca says someone is harassing her on Facebook and she doesn't know what to do next other than keep trying to get Rocco back.
