The investigation into the man accused of setting fires inside a historic home in Bend took a disturbing turn when authorities found signs of animal abuse at his home in Deschutes River Woods and heard stories of puppies cooked in a Crock Pot.

Investigators found a partially skinned dog and dead rabbits at the home of Wesley Abel Brady, 37, earlier this month, according to court documents.

Brady has been charged with burglary and arson for a Nov. 2 incident in Bend, according to police. Authorities also suspect him of aggravated first-degree animal abuse, though he has not been charged with that.

When Brady was arrested on the burglary and arson charges on Nov. 5, authorities felt he “needed care” and took him to St. Charles Bend for a mental health evaluation, said Bend Police Lt. Clint Burleigh. But Friday, neither Bend Police nor the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office knew Brady’s location.

“The hospital doesn’t tell us when they get released,” Burleigh said.

However, one day after a sheriff’s spokesman said authorities did not know where Brady was, the office said in a Facebook post that was not the case.

“Law enforcement knows where he is and although that information cannot be released, he is in a location where he is not free to leave,” the unsigned post read. “Public safety is always our No. 1 priority.”

On the morning of Nov. 2, the owner of the historic Thomas McCann house near Drake Park arrived at the home to find it filled with smoke. Police determined fires had been set at various places around the house, which was built in 1915 and is being remodeled.

The fires were out by the time the owner arrived.

Police found several items that did not belong to the owner, including receipts, and traced them to Brady and the home he shares with his father and 17-year-old son.

Three days later, sheriff’s deputies and Bend Police officers arrived at Brady’s house on Agate Road to follow up with their arson investigation.

Brady led Deschutes County sheriff’s deputy Jeff Pope around his property. Pope saw a dead, half-skinned dog under a wheelbarrow, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Deschutes County Circuit Court.

Brady later told a Bend officer the dog showed up at his house a few days before Halloween “through a portal” and it had died of natural causes.

“He skinned the dog in a ritual to connect with the gray wolf so he could connect to another realm,” wrote Deschutes County sheriff’s detective Ron Brown.

The dead dog was taken to Bend Veterinary Hospital, where a necropsy was conducted.

Next, Pope saw a room with numerous Barbie and Ken dolls “in various sexual positions.” Several of the Barbie dolls were gagged.

“One of the Barbies was hanging upside down with the head cut off,” the affidavit states. “There was a puddle under it that was simulating blood.”

Pope was shown a room set up “as some type of ritual altar,” with stones and trinkets set up in unique patterns. There were two plastic 55-gallon drums, each containing soil and a dead rabbit.

Brady’s father, Roger Brady, told police he had seen the rabbits alive the day before, and Wesley Brady had been petting them.

“He did not know the rabbits were dead,” Brown wrote.

Roger Brady shared other information with law enforcement, some of it chilling.

He said two months ago, Brady’s dog had a litter of puppies, and two of the puppies went missing. One day, he saw a Crock Pot simmering in the kitchen.

“Roger looked in the Crock Pot and found two puppies cooking in the pot,” according to the affidavit. “Roger said they stayed in the pot for about two weeks, and then Roger got upset and buried them in the yard.”

Roger Brady said his son had strangled three dogs recently when he was at the Oregon Coast, according to the affidavit. He said his son had a parcel of property in Christmas Valley that Wesley Brady often travels to. He said his son breeds dogs and after two litters, he disposes of the female dogs.

“Roger did not know exactly how they were disposed, but Wesley Abel Brady would take the dogs out to Christmas Valley and they would not come back,” Brown wrote.

Roger Brady told police that he and his grandson were scared of Wesley Brady and tried not to cross him.

After the tour of Brady’s house, investigators looked at photos from the Nov. 2 arson crime scene. They appeared to show evidence of “cult-type ceremonial activity” — items on the floor arranged in the shape of a pentagram, white candles on a concrete crypt-type box and liquid spread on the ground that appeared to be a flammable accelerant.

The search warrant request sought, among other items, buried animals on the Agate Road property, a slow cooker and items relating to cult or religious ceremonies.

Brady has no significant criminal record in Oregon.

Brady’s ex-wife filed for divorce last year in Benton County, according to court documents. She asked that all visitation of their 1-year-old daughter be supervised by Brady’s mother.

Brady’s brother, Justin Wesley Brady, died in 2006 at 27 when he drowned in a boating accident. He was a Peace Corps member at the time living in Mali in West Africa.

— Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com

This article was updated to include new information on Saturday, Nov. 17, 2018.