A pet duck has proven to be a more effective police officer than the actual cops in the town of Chandler, North Carolina, after it located the body of a woman who had missing since 2020. Nellie Sullivan disappeared approximately two years ago, but it looks like authorities didn’t do a thorough search of her property — because that’s exactly where she was found.
According to Penn Live, residents of a trailer park in Chandler were chasing their pet duck who had gotten loose. During the chase, the duck reportedly ran under a trailer — a trailer that belonged to the missing woman, who vanished in 2020. When the owners of the runaway pet attempted to retrieve it from beneath the mobile home, they discovered the remains of the woman.
While this story is attracting attention due to the somewhat comical fact that duck led to the discovery, this story illustrates an embarrassing and shameful fact. Police in Chandler, North Carolina clearly did not do a thorough search of the missing woman’s property when she disappeared two years ago. If cadaver dogs or even a cursory search of the area surrounding the trailer was conducted, this discovery would have been made in the first place. This pet duck did more police work in the two years that Nellie Sullivan was missing, than her own local law enforcement managed to do. That may be awesome news for the duck — and the aww factor is real. But this definitely casts a pall over the reputation of the Chandler Police Department.
While the public has a chuckle at this story, it’s important to remind readers that this was an elderly woman who was murdered before she was reported missing. Nellie Sullivan was allegedly murdered by her own family members. According to this source, her own granddaughter and her partner have been arrested and charged in association with concealing the death of Sullivan. Meanwhile, no reports are indicating whether or not the duck is being paid for the police work that wasn’t done over the past two years.
Chelsea Hoffman is a true crime writer with over a decade of professional writing experience. She is best known for her coverage of missing people including the tragic disappearance of Madeleine McCann as well as the heartbreaking cases of Dylan Redwine, Heather Elvis and many others.
