COLUMBUS, Ohio — Friends are like finger prints. They might have similarities, but no two are ever the same.
"I just don't understand people," Hannah Broadway said. "How somebody could do that?"
In Broadway's living room, a toy basket sits unplayed with. Beside it is a dog bed that will never again be slept in.
Gypsy was rescued by Broadway six years ago. The last three years, the 9-year-old Bull Terrier was Broadway's registered emotional support dog.
In early January, Broadway says Gypsy was finicky with her food for a couple days. The next day, Broadway was planning on a trip to the vet.
"I woke up to get ready for work to take her out and she was laying right here, collapsed, on the floor," she said.
Gypsy wasn't breathing. A puddle of blood was beneath her head. Broadway says Gypsy never barked and was quite laid back. Still, Broadway feared the worst.
Elaine Putnam, a neighbor of Broadway's, talked with 10TV recently after a note was left in her mail last May that read "Hey Fat Girl, you better figure out a way to stop your f****** dog from barking in the backyard all day or it will get a couple of rat poisoned meat balls. You Decide. Welcome to Melrose Street."
Putnam filed a report with police. Then, a couple weeks ago, Putnam was asked by police about her neighbor's dog that had possibly been poisoned. That neighbor was Broadway.
Gypsy's ashes now rest in a tiny wooden box. The Columbus Humane Society confirming this week what killed Gypsy was poison.
"It's really hard to hear," Broadway said. "Like anybody could do that, you know?"
Anybody. Potentially somebody in her own neighborhood.
"It's crazy," she said. "I could be talking to my neighbor or something and she could have been the one to do it, you know? Or, somebody I don't even know who doesn't like my neighbor."
Keepsakes are all she has left. A paw print in plaster, a lock of Gypsy's hair, ashes and four paw prints that always remind Broadway of a friend unlike any other.
The Franklin County Dog Shelter was also looking into the suspicious death of a dog from the same part of town, but this week told 10TV its test came back negative for any kind of poison.
The shelter director told 10TV a look back in their records found nine other cases of dogs showing symptoms of possible poisoning from the same part of town — zip codes of 43224 and 43211 — all within just last year.
The remains of the animals in those nine cases were not available to be tested.
Columbus Humane, the investigating agency, said they looked into the nine cases found by the Dog Shelter, and had eliminated poisoning as a cause.
The Columbus Humane Society says it is still unclear what kind of poison killed Gypsy, but the autopsy should be back in the next couple weeks.
CHS is also offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in this case.
Anyone with information should call 614-777-PETS, extension 250.