Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Fate of dog is I-75 crash's biggest mystery

Tara Bay, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, has been lost since an accident last week that left her owner in a hospital.

By EMILY ANTHES
Published August 12, 2005

Steven Chidester still has a lot of questions about the accident that left his father in critical condition last week.

Where was his father, David Chidester, going? What caused his father's truck to veer off the road and into a tree? But the most pressing is this: Where is his father's beloved dog?

David Chidester of St. Petersburg was driving north on Interstate 75 at 11 p.m. Aug. 4 when he crashed into a tree east of Brooksville in Hernando County. Chidester was traveling, as he often does, with his 8-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, Tara Bay, said his son.

David Chidester was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, where he remains in critical condition. But a trooper and tow truck driver on the scene found no evidence of Tara Bay.

David Chidester, who is expected to make a full recovery, is still on a respirator and can't yet talk to tell his story. But he knows about his dog.

"He does know about Tara, and he's concerned about her," Steven Chidester said. "She's been with him since she was a puppy. He takes her wherever he goes."

Steven Chidester, who lives in Boston, flew to Florida on Friday to be with his father, but he has another mission, too: Find Tara Bay.

For that task, he's enlisted the help of others. He contacted volunteers with a Chesapeake Bay retriever society, and with its help he's put up fliers, searched neighborhoods near the site of the crash, registered her on Web sites for lost animals and contacted area humane societies.

"I can't think of anything else we could do," Steven Chidester said.

Tara Bay resembles a regular Labrador retriever, Steven Chidester said, with dark, reddish-brown hair, and she is in good health.

The highway is fenced on both sides, so Tara would have had to walk some distance before getting off the highway, Steven Chidester said. It's possible another driver picked her up. If that's true, Steven Chidester wants whoever has her to know that she wasn't abandoned, that she has an owner who loves her.

"We're making a plea to return her," he said.

[Last modified August 12, 2005, 00:46:18]