In records from the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, Detective Jamey McGinty rejects statements by a local veterinarian who, he wrote, alluded “to the fact that I, or someone involved with this investigation, caused the injuries” found on the body of Buzzo, a dog that, with its owner Aron Christensen, was found dead along a trail near Packwood in August of last year.
McGinty, in the report, consulted with an independent specialist whose evaluation contradicts the findings of the local vet.
“Due to the concerns that were raised, we did previously request an outside law enforcement agency conduct an investigation,” wrote sheriff’s office Field Operations Chief Dusty Breen in a text to a reporter on Wednesday. “Their investigation is active, and our agency is not releasing any additional information at this time.”
Christensen’s family recently filed a $20 million tort claim against the county alleging the sheriff’s office “maliciously damaged” the dog.
The veterinarian, Dr. Brandy Fay, of Newaukum Valley Veterinary Services, in an interview with The Chronicle, spoke about inconsistencies between findings from a necropsy she performed on Buzzo and a second one by Dr. Kris Otteman, a forensic veterinary specialist. She detailed a report on Buzzo that showed “no conclusive evidence” that the second wound was made while Buzzo was alive, suggesting the wound may have been made between the two necropsies — while the dog was in the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office’s possession.
Background
In August of 2022, Aron Christensen, 49, of Portland, was found dead by a hiking trail near Walupt Lake, south of Packwood. His dog, a 4-month-old Australian cattle dog puppy named Buzzo, was found dead beside him.
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office’s responding deputy made the decision on the scene to call off detectives, rather than treat the case as a homicide investigation. The local prosecuting attorney called that “error” one of many “problematic” parts of the investigation.
Two days after Aron and Buzzo likely died, the father of Tenino resident Ethan M. Asbach, now 20, called the sheriff’s office to report his son had “shot a dog” they thought to be a wild animal and subsequently found a man’s dead body along the trail near Walupt Lake. In body-worn camera footage recently obtained by The Chronicle, officers interview Asbach’s father and speak with his girlfriend, whose face and name are redacted because she is a minor.
Later, Asbach made a sworn statement that aligned with what his father and girlfriend told the cops. Body-worn camera footage from the initial response or any subsequent investigation, according to Lewis County Public Records, does not exist.
Christensen and Buzzo were brought to the Lewis County Coroner’s Office after they were recovered from the trail. They were both evaluated by a contracted forensic pathologist, Dr. Megan Quinn. She performed a full autopsy on Christensen, and briefly examined Buzzo’s body before it was sent to the Thurston County Coroner’s Office for X-Rays (Lewis County doesn’t have its own X-ray machine).
Quinn found Christensen was having a heart attack for several hours before he died and that, once shot, he was likely alive for several minutes to hours later, which contradicted Asbach's statement.
Quinn determined the bullet caused Christensen’s death.
After Thurston County, Buzzo was delivered to Fay of Newaukum Valley Veterinary Services for a necropsy, an autopsy for animals. Her conclusion was Buzzo died after being stabbed, not shot.
In November, the sheriff’s office forwarded the case to the prosecuting attorney's office. The latter said more investigation was needed, and sent it back.
The sheriff’s office then consulted with Otteman, a forensic veterinary specialist who is on the board of the International Veterinary Forensic Sciences Association and is considered to be an expert in the field, the most recent report notes.
Otteman, despite rumors claiming otherwise in a South Lewis County publication, is licensed to practice veterinary medicine in the state of Washington and Oregon under her married name, Kris Brant. According to Detective Jamey McGinty’s supplemental report, she uses her maiden name professionally, and either way, her licensing was irrelevant to her legal ability to consult on the case.
After her necropsy, Otteman concluded Buzzo was killed by a passthrough bullet. She found an exit wound Fay did not see.
With these findings, and a determination that the bullet which killed Christensen did, indeed, come from Asbach’s gun, the sheriff’s office referred the case again. The prosecuting attorney’s office declined to press charges, citing issues with the case.
With the investigation essentially over, the family’s attorney regained possession of the dog from evidence. He brought the body to Fay again, who aimed to understand the differences between the findings of the two necropsies. She saw the second wound, which Otteman thought to be the exit wound from a 9mm bullet, and suspected it to be post-mortem, made after the dog was dead.
She sent a test of the tissue to an independent lab. The test said there was no “conclusive evidence” to suggest the wound was made before the animal died, and she forwarded the report to The Chronicle before an interview on her findings.
The Chronicle then reached out to a multitude of independent veterinary specialists for consultation on the two starkly different conclusions including experts with the International Veterinary Forensic Sciences Association, Otteman herself, professors with Washington State University’s veterinary school, the ASPCA, Washington-based animal cruelty investigation experts and Dr. Melinda D. Merck, a Texas-based consultant on veterinary forensics.
Each either declined to consult on the case or did not respond.
McGinty’s Report
In early May, after interviewing Fay, The Chronicle spoke with the sheriff’s office. As Detective McGinty wrote in his supplemental case report, Fay “suggested injuries found by Dr. Otteman were not present during Dr. Fay's original necropsy.”
To The Chronicle, sheriff’s office Chief Kevin Engelbertson asked whether Fay was suggesting “law enforcement shot the dog?” He further said the office would be following up with the investigation.
In the supplemental report, dated two weeks after the initial article was published, McGinty wrote Fay’s suggestion — which she never made outright — was “absolutely false.”
McGinty wrote that he consulted with Dr. Melinda D. Merck, the Texas-based consultant. Unbeknownst to The Chronicle at the time of a reporter’s request, which she never responded to, Merck had consulted with Fay previously. According to the report, Merck said she was “very shocked” Fay called her evaluation on the dog a “necropsy.”
From the report: “it ‘was not (a necropsy), it was an external exam.’ She went on to say that you ‘never ever stick something into a wound track, ever.’ This is because you alter the characteristics of it.”
In her initial evaluation, Fay reported inserting a tool into Buzzo’s wound.
Merck, according to the report, said Fay should have “reflected the skin,” in her first evaluation and that she misinterpreted the photographs from Otteman’s necropsy.
McGinty wrote, “Fay didn't even pay the consultation bill after submitting an invoice to her. Dr. Merck said she did not talk to Dr. Otteman about the consultation until Lewis County media reached out to her asking her to review this case. She also has never heard from Dr. Fay again.”
The Narrative
Detective McGinty’s report very briefly addresses claims that the sheriff’s office pushed for the evidence to align with a particular narrative.
He wrote: “These are simply untrue statements.”
Fay, whose office is in Chehalis, has a decade of history working with local law enforcement and is responsible for one surgery that helped save the life of locally-famous K9 Arlo.
Asked how Otteman, the expert forensic veterinarian, could have overlooked that the wound was made after Buzzo died, Fay said, “I think Dr. Otteman found what they wanted her to find.”
McGinty was present for Otteman’s necropsy, but was not present for Fay’s. McGinty did not return The Chronicle’s request for comment on the initial article.
Quinn, the forensic pathologist, likewise, in an interview with the prosecuting attorney’s office, said she felt pressure to have her findings on Aron Christensen’s autopsy align with a certain narrative.
Meyer, the prosecutor, cited that conversation in his letter declining to file charges against the primary suspect.
The case has drawn controversy from the public as Asbach — whose sworn statement says he is “responsible” for the gunshot — has not yet seen prosecution.
Corey Christensen, Aron’s brother, has called for Washington’s governor and/or the local prosecuting attorney to forward the case to the state attorney general’s office. So far, he’s been unsuccessful.
