State police seek return of suspect in stolen car case related to missing dog, Lucky

Lucky the dog has been missing for a month, but his owner’s heartbreak is still as fresh as when he first disappeared.

“We’re just basically still hoping that we can find Lucky,” said Linda Folino, whose 87-year-old father, Willard Martz, is the dog’s owner. “He’s such a big part of our lives, and we kind of feel a little lost without him.”

Folino and Martz have been buoyed by the amount of help they’ve received up and down the East Coast through social media in searching for the 10-year-old Airedale terrier. Lucky went missing Sept. 23 when a Maryland man is accused of carjacking Martz, of Donegal Township, in an East Huntingdon shopping plaza and taking off in his car with the dog inside.

While the search continues, state Trooper Steve Limani said he reached out to his agency’s top officials in Harrisburg seeking help to potentially get the suspect back in Pennsylvania quickly after he was apprehended in North Carolina.

Kenneth Wilson Crider, 43, was charged locally Sept. 25 with robbery, theft and receiving stolen property in connection with the carjacking.

“There’s more we can do, probably, if we can get our mitts on him, if he’s willing to cooperate a little bit,” Limani said. “He’s their property. They charged him, and, now that they started the process, you don’t just give up your prisoners.”

Crider was on the run until he wrecked Martz’ car Sept. 28 during a police chase in North Carolina. Limani said Crider fought extradition to Pennsylvania. He is facing charges in North Carolina related to the chase and crash, which spanned two counties there. It could be months before those cases are disposed of and Crider, along with any evidence North Carolina authorities have, is released to Pennsylvania State Police, Limani said.

“We’ve got the green light to go get him whenever we’re told we can get him,” Limani said. “Doing it sooner than later is important. If he would’ve just waived extradition from the get go, he would’ve been back here already.”

Crider told Nash County Sheriff’s deputies he let Lucky go at a rest stop along Interstate 95. Limani said state police would search for the dog if there was a specific location, but they don’t have access to the suspect or any electronic devices he might have had with him to try to track his movements.

Folino wants Pennsylvania authorities to get their hands on him soon, too.

“I really wish that we could get him extradited here so we could get more information out of him,” she said. “This not knowing isn’t helping us. It’s very difficult.”

Possible sightings

In the meantime, Martz has gotten a new car, and a Facebook group dedicated to finding Lucky has exploded. Users from numerous states have banded together to post flyers, do searches, spread the word on social media and cull through missing dog reports up and down the East Coast in hopes of finding the right one. There are dozens of found dogs that resemble Lucky, but one Folino thinks might be him — a canine that was seen in South Carolina.

The person who found the dog, but was unable to capture it, took a video of the encounter.

“To me, it’s the most probability of Lucky so far,” Folino said. “I’m still holding out hope until they find that one.”

Even if Lucky is never found, she said, the community that has been built around looking for him can be an example for others who lose their pets on the various methods available to find their animals.

“This has put more information out for people who have lost a pet to kind of see what is out there, to see what is possible to locate their lost pet,” she said. “To me, that would be the greater good.”

Anyone with information on Lucky’s whereabouts is asked to call state police at 724-832-3288, 911 or 412-298-8611. A reward is being offered by the family.

Pennsylvania troopers believe Crider stole a vehicle Sept. 22 in Maryland and led authorities on a chase on the turnpike before ditching that vehicle. Crider might have moved on foot overnight to the Tractor Supply parking lot in East Huntingdon, where he set his eyes on Martz the following morning, according to court papers.

As Martz parked and headed into the store, leaving a window open for Lucky, police said, Crider came up behind him and grabbed the car keys out of his pocket.