Man Arrested In Marietta After Rotting Dog Found In Car: ICYMI

KENNESAW, GA -- A Carrollton man is facing criminal charges after a Marietta police officer found the decomposing corpse of a 3-month-old puppy in his car, according to news reports. Harrison R. Kristofak, 22, was pulled over Sept. 30 on the campus of Life University, where he told the officer that he was there to visit some friends.
Tipped off by a student, campus security notified authorities that Kristofak's car had a stench coming from it, local media reported. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)
He told the Marietta officer that he bought the little pit bull puppy, whom Kristofak said he named Georgia, off Craigslist less than a week ago. Yet, officers pulled the dog from his yellow 2006 Mustang GT "stiff" and "maggot-covered," according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“He stated he did not stop nor drive her to a vet because there was nothing they could do, she was deceased,” according to a police report cited by the AJC.
Kristofak was arrested when his story didn't add up: He told authorities that the dog seemed sick the entire four-day period he had it. He also said that he stayed in a Marietta hotel off Windy Hill Road a couple of nights, leaving Georgia in the car with the windows partly down the whole time, the newspaper reports.
Kristofak, a West Georgia University student, told the officer that he planned to bury the dog in his aunt's backyard in Carrollton. When the officer questioned whether he intended to drive there “with the stench of a rotting animal ... he just shook his head while looking down,” the newspaper reports.
Animal control officials said the dog likely had been deceased longer than a day, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

Kristofak was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and taken to the Cobb Detention Center. He bonded out of jail Sunday for $7,920, according to Cobb Cobb Sheriff's Office records.

Image via Cobb County Sheriff's Office