Former Florida Cop Charged with Killing His Ex-Girlfriend’s 3-Year-Old Maltese Poodle Using Rat Poison

A former Florida police officer is facing charges after being accused of killing his ex-girlfriend’s dog.

On Friday, Jan. 16, Edwin Campuzano turned himself in to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) in Florida. An arrest warrant had been obtained in response to a report made about him in Dec. 2025, the HCSO said in a news release.

Campuzano, 22, allegedly poisoned Paula Fernandez’s three-year-old Maltese Poodle, Milo, while she was on vacation.

“He would continuously tell me that he didn’t like Milo, but I didn’t think he would ever do something like that,” said Fernandez in a press conference on Jan. 23.

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Fernandez found out Milo was dead on May 30, 2025, when she received a call from a neighbor, who had been checking on the dog while she was away.

“I’ll never forget that call. I’ll never forget that day,” said Fernandez at the press conference. “I just felt my heart drop, and it just didn’t make sense because I made sure to say bye to him in the morning before our flight, and he was perfectly fine. He was happy.”

The dog owner and her family were away for around a week. 

She continued, “By the time we got back to the house, we came home to an empty house when we should’ve come home to Milo running up to us, greeting us. In addition to that, there was blood on the floor, by the door, that we had to clean up because he [had been] vomiting.”

Fernandez recalled that Campuzano bought flowers for her family as they were grieving for Milo.

“At that time, I thought it was a sweet gesture, but now to know that he’s the one responsible for Milo’s death is a pain that I can’t even describe,” said Fernandez at the press conference.

Sheriff Chad Chronister said at the press conference that Milo was “healthy” and had “no history of …medical issues” before his death. Fernandez sent photos of leftover pellets from Milo’s food bowl, only to discover that they were allegedly a type of rodent poison. 

As her suspicions arose, she also paid for a necropsy [equivalent to a post mortem on humans] to find out the cause of her dog’s death.

“She went to the veterinarian, asked them to perform a necropsy,” said Sheriff Chronister. “She wanted to know why and how they died and that’s when it was revealed that they bled to death as a result of being poisoned. 

“Can you imagine someone’s state of mind to be that premeditated, that cruel, that deliberate to take the life of an animal and then at the same time want to comfort her and her family with flowers,” he continued, adding, “Scary, I’m glad he was stopped now.”

Fernandez obtained a copy of Campuzano’s credit card bill, which appeared to show that he bought poison from Tractor Supply just two days before Milo was found dead.

“He died a painful death and he died alone,” said Fernandez in the press conference. “I just hope that there’s some way we can get justice for Milo because he didn’t deserve this.”

Speaking about Campuzano, she added, “The scariest part to me with all of this is that there were no signs. He was well-liked, a completely sweet boyfriend to me. We hardly argued. There were no signs other than that he didn’t like Milo and I just summed that up to the fact that he wasn’t a dog person. He was a perfect boyfriend, that’s what makes this so much scarier.”

At the time of the incident, Campuzano was a full-time law enforcement officer with the Bartow Police Department, but is no longer employed by the agency, said the HCSO in a news release.

Campuzano has been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals.

“Those who wear the badge are held to a higher standard, and when someone falls short of that responsibility, it reflects a serious failure of the values we are sworn to uphold,” said Sheriff Chad Chronister, per the news release. “This innocent animal deserved care and protection, and the trust placed in him as a partner makes this loss all the more senseless.”

The HSCO did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for further comment on Monday, Jan. 26.