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Couple Missing; Pets Found Dirty, Alone At Home

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By LINDSAY PETERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2007

TAMPA - Wendy Dusza's family members hadn't heard from her for a week, so on Friday they went to the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Trevor McGinty.

They found the couple's cat and Labrador-golden retriever mix alone, dirty, hungry and thirsty after drinking nearly all of the water from the apartment's toilet bowls.

Hillsborough County deputies who answered the call found no sign of forced entry. Family members said the couple was stable and financially secure. And everyone interviewed agreed: The couple would never have abandoned their animals.

"We have a mystery," said Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.

Sheriff's officials spent Saturday searching the couple's apartment and talking to neighbors in their complex on Bayside Village Drive in Tampa. Using a helicopter and a boat, they also searched Old Tampa Bay, which is less than a mile from the complex.

These are "highly unusual circumstances for this couple," Callaway said. "So we're very concerned and we have a full scale investigation and a search under way."

He said it was "unusual for them to have left and not contacted their family members." But it was especially odd for them to leave their cat and dog, named Mucky. "They were animal lovers," Callaway said.

Also missing from the apartment complex is the couple's red 2006 Jeep Wrangler with a beige top.

Two crime scene vans sat in front of the apartment on Saturday evening. Callaway said detectives took several pieces of evidence out of the apartment. He wouldn't describe what they were but said investigators hoped to have some answers as early as today. "We're trying to put it all together," he said.

In addition to the search of the apartment and Old Tampa Bay, sheriff's officials have sent alerts about Dusza, 34, and McGinty, 30, across the country. They are asking anyone who may have seen them or their Jeep to call the sheriff's office at (813) 247-8240.
Callaway said neighbors told detectives that Dusza and McGinty, both mortgage brokers, were talking about moving to the Chicago area, but that hadn't been confirmed.

McGinty's stepmother, Barbara McGinty, who lives in Illinois, said a sheriff's detective called her Friday with the news. "We're shocked," she said. "We're just waiting to hear more."

This summer, she and other relatives visited McGinty and Dusza, who have been together for three years. "Everything was fine," she said.

But family members became worried last week because McGinty wasn't returning their calls. Barbara McGinty said she and other relatives were planning to meet up with her stepson and Dusza in Texas in a couple of weeks.

She doesn't think they're on the road to Texas because they wouldn't have left Tampa without having made arrangements for their animals. "I don't know where they are," she said.

The animals were taken to Hillsborough County Animal Services, Callaway said. "They are fine."

Tribune reporter Mike Wells contributed to this report.

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