Cowboy Rancher Rob Krentz Murder Case Reports Tell of Intense Loyalty by His Dog "Blue"

Nothing earthshaking emerges in the carefully edited CCSO reports. What does hit us hard, however, is the remarkable loyalty that Krentz's beloved blue heeler--appropriately named Blue--showed to his master until the very end. As we described in our story, Rob Krentz's body was found out on the family's sprawling ranch in southeastern Cochise County hours after he and Blue went missing. Krentz had been shot twice from close range by a still-unknown assailant. Blue was shot once in the back, but still was clinging to life as authorities moved into the crime scene around midnight last March 27. The sheriff's police reports describe how Krentz, after being fatally shot, had fallen out of the Polaris all-terrain vehicle he and Blue had been riding around in. Blue was lying in the back of the vehicle near his slain master when authorities arrived. The dog was"extremely weak and shivering," according to the reports, but roused himself when the deputies tried to approach Krentz's body, causing them to retreat. Soon, they realized that Blue couldn't move, and he was fading fast. They phoned an animal-control officer, who drove out to the remote setting and euthanized the animal. Investigators later traced tire tracks from Krentz's ATV back about 1,000 yards, to a location where they strongly suspect he was shot before speeding off. At the shooting site, the detectives found "shoe prints and dog paw [prints] in the dirt" in proximity to each other. That finding may prove interesting down the road. We long have suspected that Blue somehow had a role in what happened out on the Krentz Ranch on the morning of March 27...more