Suspected corpse leads to neglected pup in a cage

WAUPACA – It was the stench of a decomposing human body. That was Waupaca Police Officer Jensen’s first thought when he approached Room 223.
He and Officer Batte were dispatched to Econo Lodge for a welfare check. Hotel guests and staff noticed that Carrie Klenke, 46, hadn’t been seen for a few days and they also could smell a foul odor coming from her second-floor room. It was Wednesday morning, May 6.
The hotel manager said earlier that Klenke has rented the room for 294 days in the last year, typically staying over weekends. Her silver SUV was missing from the parking lot. Another hotel resident said she had not been seen for two weeks.
Jensen called in his findings to Captain Benzschawel. His order: if there might be a deceased person inside, you have to go in.
Both officers entered. The stench hit Officer Batte so hard he took a step back. Jenson plugged his nose and swept the room with his flashlight. Urine pads were on the floor. A dog whimpered in the darkness.
Batte contacted the Waupaca Fire Department for emergency breathing gear and Captain Benzschawel, Detective Sgt. Rodenz, and Police Chief Kraeger arrived on the scene.

Rescuing Jax
Meanwhile, Officer Jensen was able to contact Klenke at her workplace. She spoke with a raspy voice and said she had strep throat. She said her dog, Jax, was in the room. When Jensen informed her that the police had been called because hotel staff feared a decomposing body was inside, Klenke admitted she was embarrassed by the room’s condition and was terrified of getting into legal trouble. She stated she did not believe anyone was dead inside and gave the officers permission to enter and check on Jax.
With breathing gear, Sgt. Rodenz and firefighters entered the room and picked up Jax inside his kennel as loose feces fell to the ground. The kennel door was locked with plastic zip ties. In the kennel, Jax lay upon a pile of filthy blankets crusted together.
The dog had a normal weight but was dehydrated. Jax lapped up four and a half bottles of water provided by firefighters.
Over the phone, Klenke verbally agreed to surrender legal custody of the animal and Jax was taken to the Waupaca Humane Society.
Chief Kraeger contacted Waupaca County Public Health for an immediate environmental inspection of the room.

The neglect of Jax
Klenke later said during an interrogation that she used the zip ties so Jax could not escape out of his cage. She moved her primary residence out of Econo Lodge approximately three weeks prior, relocating to an apartment in Iola. Klenke said that Jax was a one-year-old Dogo-Boxer mix. Because her new landlord only permitted her to have a single pet, she chose to bring her older dog, Peaches, to the new apartment, leaving Jax behind in the hotel room.
When questioned about the heavy accumulation of garbage and feces on the floor, Klenke claimed that the room had been clean while she lived there, but acknowledged that Jax had been defecating continuously since she moved out. She admitted she could not remember the last time she changed the dog’s soiled bedding, estimating it had been at least a week prior to April 28.
Klenke’s initial timeline of visits fell apart under questioning. She previously told Officer Jensen that she had been at the room three days prior and that her brother had visited the night before, she ultimately confessed that she had not actually stepped foot in Room 223 since April 28 or April 29 and her “brother” was a homeless man that vaguely agreed to look after the pup.
Klenke has been charged with intentional or negligent mistreatment of animals, failing to provide proper food and drink to confined animals, and intentionally providing improper animal shelter sanitation standards—all of which are Class A misdemeanors. Because Klenke was free on bail for an open felony case at the time, she also has a count of felony bail jumping against her.