A man is facing multiple charges in connection to the death of a Colorado dog breeder. But according to an arrest warrant, the suspect told investigators the man’s death had nothing to do with dogs, but instead, a drug cartel.
Sergio Ferrer, 36, has been charged with first degree murder, felony murder and aggravated robbery in relation to the killing of Doberman breeder Paul Peavey, 57, the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release on Facebook.
While Ferrer was arrested just a few hours after the man’s body was found on an unrelated warrant out of Nebraska, the sheriff’s office said he was considered a person of interest in Peavey’s death at the time.
A lawyer representing Ferrer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The investigation began on Aug. 21, two days after Peavey was last heard from. He was reported missing out of Clear Creek County, about 40 miles west of Denver, on Aug. 21, the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release.
The next day, deputies responded to the area Peavey was reported missing from and found his camper with the door open, according to an arrest warrant. The deputies couldn’t find him anywhere on the property, nor did they find food or water for the dogs that were there. The dogs were taken to a shelter, the warrant read.
On Saturday, Aug. 24, community members organized a search party and found the body of a man just before noon on the property. When investigators showed up, a group leader said they found the body 30 yards from Peavey’s trailer. It had been partially covered in branches.
“It looked like the body had been dragged down the hill,” a Creek County Sheriff’s Office detective wrote in the warrant.
The coroner’s office identified the body as Peavey that same day, the sheriff’s office announced in a news release. On Aug. 29, the coroner’s office determined his manner of death as homicide, the sheriff’s office said.
He had been shot, the sheriff’s office later announced.
Community members told investigators where to look
According to a Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office news release, Peavey bred Doberman dogs and ran a website called Elite European Dobermans. Investigators said in the release that all of the victim’s puppies are microchipped and multiple Doberman puppies were missing from the victim’s home.
Members of a search party organized to find Peavey gave investigators the suspect’s name, according to an arrest warrant filed in Clear Creek County. The searchers said the suspect’s daughter was selling Doberman pinscher puppies on Facebook.
According to the warrant, one group member said when they called Peavey’s cell phone, the person who answered was not Peavey and instead seemed to be putting on a fake accent. The individual also said several items were missing from the victim’s property, including up to 19 puppies, metal detecting equipment, jewelry and BB guns and other items.
On Aug. 25, an agent with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation went to the suspect’s home for interviews, the arrest warrant said. When the agent looked through a window at the home, he saw wipes that looked like the ones from the crime scene, as well as dog collars.
The CBI agent also spoke to someone who knew the suspect. The individual said they saw the suspect on Aug. 23 holding a small Doberman dog, according to the arrest warrant.
Another individual who lived with the suspect reported seeing the man with a dog on Aug. 21. The suspect said he had bought the dog for his daughter.
The arrest warrant also said investigators tracked down the owners of some of the dogs Peavey had microchipped. One of them showed proof that she purchased the dog on Aug. 21, the day Peavey was reported missing. The dog owner also showed records proving she sent money to a Cash App account named “Ferrer Ferrer.”
The sheriff’s office said in a news release Friday that the investigation into Peavey’s death is ongoing and some of his puppies are still unaccounted for.
