PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A woman has been arrested and charged with animal cruelty after a badly injured dog who had reportedly been shot “execution style” was discovered near Mount St. Helens in Washington’s Cowlitz County and survived last year.

Using “digital forensic evidence,” witness interviews and completing search warrants, law enforcement officials in Cowlitz County say they identified the suspect of the animal cruelty as 33-year-old Jessica Rosita Schmidt, of Castle Rock, the previous owner of the dog.

She was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Cowlitz County Jail after officers contacted her while she was driving in the 8500 block of Barnes Drive in Castle Rock. 

Cowlitz PUD employees found the white English Retriever who appeared to be shot in the head and had a snout that was duct-taped shut in the 17000 block of Spirit Lake Highway in Toutle on Nov. 2, 2023.

Miraculously, the dog survived its injuries and has been taken under the care of a family and given the name Trooper. According to the Cowlitz County Sheriff’s Office, which took over the case from the Humane Society of Cowlitz County, the projectile the dog was shot with “had fragmented into numerous small pieces” in its head but survived. The humane society described in a Facebook post that Trooper had been shot “execution style.”

Schmidt is charged with first-degree animal cruelty, making false or misleading statements to a public servant and second-degree driving with a revoked or suspended license.