Police have no leads in dog trainer’s murder

Karen Zekan

Monday, March 9, 1998 | 10:04 a.m.

Dogs meant the world to Viola Odell.

She raised them, trained them and over the years became one of the most familiar faces in competition circles, her three prize-winning shelties and a border collie named Kip earning titles time and again.

But it was her kind manner which won her the hearts of animal lovers who came to know her. It made it all the more shocking the night of Oct. 15, 1997, when Odell failed to show up to teach a dog class. Fellow instructors later found the 67-year-old retired Air Force senior master sergeant in her garage, stabbed to death with a screwdriver.

Almost six months later, her murder remains unsolved.

The heinous case has stumped Metro Police. There were no signs of forced entry into her home at 4420 E. Shalimar. Nothing appeared to have been taken, negating the possibility of robbery of a motive. And sadly her dogs

"Police have said it may be years before they catch her killer," said Henry Pfiester, Odell's long-time friend and agility class teaching partner. "They think they'll have to wait for the killer to strike again to figure out who it is."

The dog community, however, hopes otherwise. They're offering more than $6,000 in reward money to whoever can lead authorities to the murderer.

"Somebody knows who did it," said Kris Pickering, a member of the Flying Colors Flyball team Odell's dogs used to run on. "We want this case solved."

"I miss having her standing out there," Pfiester said during Sunday's Spring Fever Flyball tournament, tears welling up in his eyes. "A lot of times when I'm out there running, I'll almost see her standing there."

Also painful to the Flying Colors crew is knowing that Odell's dogs, once the joy of her life, are now split up and no longer competing.

Kiely, her 12-year-old sheltie, is retired and living with a friend of Odell's. Goldie, 4, and Kayla, 2, both shelties, are living back in New York with Odell's brother.

Kip, a border collie Odell bought specifically to herd and which later excelled in flyball, is now in California.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Secret Witness at 385-5555.