'A Horrible Person': Woman Accused Of Killing 5 Dogs Had Tearful Breakdown, Detective Says

FAIRFIELD, CT — When Heidi Lueders, who is accused of killing five dogs in a Fairfield home, turned herself in to police Jan. 15, 2019, she quickly broke down, a detective said Friday in court.

“She said that she was a horrible person, she can’t believe that she did this,” Detective Kerry Dalling said in an interview that was part of the pre-trial proceedings for Lueders’ case.

Lueders looked tired, started crying, told Dalling she could hear the dogs barking in her head, and asked if she would go to jail or if she could ever own dogs again, according to Dalling.

The interviews Friday were related to motions to suppress evidence and dismiss the five felony counts of maliciously killing an animal and one count of first-degree criminal property damage that Lueders faces. While Dalling was on the stand, Lueders’ attorney, Robert Serafinowicz, argued the notice of rights that Dalling read Lueders when she turned herself in did not constitute a full disclosure of Miranda Rights, although Judge Peter McShane questioned elements of Serafinowicz’s line of reasoning.

Serafinowicz has also said outside of court that he believes there is a lack of clarity about whether police or Lueders’ landlord had permission to enter Lueders’ home when the dogs were discovered in November 2018. He interviewed the landlord, Celly Roberts, who found the animals in crates inside the residence on Prince Street.

“I was very upset, overwhelmed, emotional,” Roberts said. “I called the police out of panic. My house was destroyed.”

Roberts said she gave Lueders 48 hours notice that she was going to enter the home. The heat at the residence wasn’t working, she said, and she smelled smoke coming from a portable heater covered in garbage in the home. In addition to the dead dogs, she saw needles at the residence, and earlier that week a plumber who had gone to the home but had not seen the full interior of the residence had told Roberts that Lueders was a hoarder, Roberts said.

“It was so disgusting,” she said, intermittently crying and pausing to wipe her eyes with a scarf as she spoke. “The smell alone, you couldn’t even be in there for more than two minutes.”

A neighbor had called the health department about the home, complaining of a smell of feces and urine coming from the residence over the summer, according to Roberts, who said department officials had visited the home, but not gone inside. Lueders had also been late on her rent payments not long before the bodies were discovered, Roberts said.

Roberts sought $166,000 from her insurance company in connection with the damage to the home, but only received $10,000 when the company claimed the destruction was done by the dogs rather than by Lueders, she said.

Lueders is the former president of Bully Breed Rescue Inc., and had told Bully Breed members and volunteers that she sent four of the dogs to a sanctuary and the fifth to a foster home.

The hearing will resume Dec. 10. If the motion to dismiss is denied, the next phase of the trial process will begin Jan. 4. Lueders is currently free on a $250,000 bond. She waived her right to a jury trial after turning down a plea deal in October that would have seen her serve two-and-a-half years in prison, according to the Connecticut Post, which has reported she could face up to 30 years behind bars if convicted.