This is one fact that has always disturbed me. If this is true then the neighbor couldn't have much of a thing for dogs. Who would ever put a dog back in a yard with the leash still on? I wouldn't as I would worry that he would get caught on something and be stuck there for who knows how long. Or get twisted in the leash and choke to death.
I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of that neighbor, Karen Servas.
Given that we have a leash law, and therefore unleashed dogs might end up in "jail", I know if I saw a neighbor's dog runnning loose I would put it back in their fenced yard. In fact, I have done just that!
Karen was on her way somewhere. Dec. 24 is kind of a hurried day for most people, b/c most people have Christmas plans. She probably did not want to have to spend time chatting with her neighbor and exchanging pleasantries, as she handed the dog over to Laci. Also, the door to Laci's house was in a place where you had to go inside a fence to get to it.
She could've taken the leash off, but then once again she risks delaying herself by having to knock on the door and give the leash to the neighbor. She could've just hung the leash on the fence, but then she'd risk inconveniencing her neighbor b/c the neighbor would find the dog, but wouldn't know where the leash was.
Lots of dogs are left alone chained to a spike, and those dogs are wearing a leash, in a way, and they don't usually strangle on it.
Frankly, I could easily imagine myself shoving the dog back in the pen where he belongs, leash and all, and hurrying off to handle my own affairs. I might then call the neighbor/dog owner as I was driving away, to let them know. Karen didn't, but then I could see her forgetting all about the incident while she was off to go shopping. Or maybe she had not committed the Petersons' phone number to memory. I only know one of my next-door neighbors' phone numbers by heart.
One other thing. What incentive would Karen Servas have to lie about her having put the dog in the fence with its leash on?
And didn't subsequent facts (as recounted by Mister Innocent) bear up her story? He said he did find the dog in the fence, with its leash on.
Spunky she could have put the dog back in the yard with the leash on thinking that Laci was actually home but maybe napping. I don't know. I find it worse that Peterson was willing to have his dog lost or run over by just letting him loose away from home.