DELANO, Minn - A Delano couple is looking for answers after finding their dog shot dead on an island near Buffalo Thursday night.
They're now looking for answers after a bizarre 10 weeks of worry that started when their dog first went missing.
"We haven't seen him since December 21st," Jason Davis explains.
"We just kept thinking it can't get any worse, it can't get worse, but then, it did."
Jason and his wife Shanna did what any dog owner would do after losing a pet.
The couple called the authorities and told everyone they knew to keep an eye out for their golden lab Lou.
"We were doing everything we could," Davis explains.
About ten days later their calls were answered.
A man calling himself Kevin told the couple he had found their dog.
Davis says the man wanted to keep Lou, saying his family had grown attached to him, however, "Kevin's" story quickly changed.
"It went from how can I get the dog to you, to what's he worth to you?" Davis says.
The couple decided to pay the $1,200 ransom.
They said by that point the leads had run dry and Wright County deputies were at an impasse.
Davis says "Kevin" instructed them to drive to Saint Paul and to leave the money in a car in downtown, but the couple never got their dog back.
Four weeks later Lou's body was found on an island near Pelican Lake in Buffalo.
"I could see after I brushed the snow off his head that it was Lou," Davis explains. "He had been shot twice."
They're not sure if the man who demanded the ransom is the same person who shot and killed their dog, but they're hoping to find out.
The couple has since hired an independent bounty hunter with U.S. Fugitive Recovery and Extradition to track down the man on the phone.
They're also asking for the public's help to track down their dog's killer.
"We think someone knows something and we're hoping someone comes forward," Shanna says.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Wright County Sheriff's Office or U.S. Fugitive Recovery and Extradition.