WASHINGTON — A D.C. resident is begging for help to recover her missing service dog.
Demetria Fultz's appeal touched staff at WUSA9, because she is someone we’ve reported on before. Newsworthy tragedies have put her family in the public eye twice in the past year and a half.
A pit bull mix named Tymira was one of Fultz's last threads of hope, and now it’s gone too.
“We can't sleep without the dog," she said, fighting back tears. "We can't eat without the dog."
According to a police report, one of Fultz's sons, 27-year-old Demetrius Antonio Johnson, said he was jumped and injured by a group of five attackers while he was out walking Tymira on Oct. 12 in the 2300 block of Skyland Terrace in SE Washington. Fultz said Tymira, was either stolen or ran off during the beating and hasn’t been seen since.
The loss of the dog comes after Fultz's family endured the loss of her 10-year-old son Amir and husband Demetrius Fultz in an accident with a Metrobus in April of 2022.
Then in August of 2022, Fultz endured further tragedy when the body of her brother, Casino Gaskins, was found in some woods in Prince George's County. Gaskins had been missing for two years. Police have still not determined how he died.
Tymira became part of the family and was registered as a service animal when Fultz came to regard her companionship as part of her grief recovery. She is now desperate to find the dog.
"We're tyring to basically adapt to this life without my husband and my son and the dog was like a part of the family," she said. "It was a memory of my son. It was getting us past and through our therapy. It reminds me so much of my son. It's like she had his spirit in her."
Metropolitan Police have attempted to help by putting out a flyer about the dog.
The city’s Humane Rescue Alliance is on alert, and even called when workers thought they found Tymira only to find it was a false alarm.
Fultz asks anyone with information about the dog to contact police in DC's 7th District at 202-698-1500 or the city's Human Rescue Alliance at (202) 723-5730. She says she can also accept messages on her Instagram page.