It was Easter Sunday when Shannon Smith Wood’s brother, visiting her home in Harwood, inadvertently let her three dogs out. They were gone in a flash.

Otis, an approximately 150-pound Lab, came back the same day, panting. Luna, a white German shepherd, returned around 5:30 a.m. Monday.

But Maisie, her 11-month-old Belgian Malinois wearing a pink collar, was nowhere to be found.

Even though it was distressing that Maisie remained missing, Smith Wood said, nothing suggested what would unfold over the next few days: a dead puppy, a viral video, a lie and a rural community in southern Anne Arundel County bitterly divided by the drama.

State and local authorities are investigating how a neighbor apparently mistook Maisie for a coyote, gunned her down and disposed of her remains.

When Maisie didn’t come back Monday morning with Luna, Smith Wood and her family intensified their search. She hired a drone pilot to look for the dog. Together, they scoured farmland and woods.

Day gave way to night.

“Nothing,” Smith Wood recalled.

“I just felt that she lost her way, especially because they got split,” she added.

As one drone pilot was getting ready to leave around 8:20 p.m. Monday, Smith Wood received several text messages.

“Hi!!! I think my friend may have seen your dog,” the texts read. “They thought it was a coyote since they had heard them lately. Here is a video.”

The approximately two-minute clip has been circulated widely on social media, with many expressing outrage over it.

In the video, a vehicle drives toward an intersection. An animal is visible through a tract of foliage.

“That’s a dog,” a child says.

“No, that’s not a dog,” a woman responds. “He don’t walk like a dog.”

A man places a phone call.

“Hey, there’s a coyote out here. Pop, where the shotty at, man? I’m gonna drop him,” the man says.

They continue to describe the animal’s movements and appearance.

“See his black face?” the woman says.

“He’s definitely not afraid of us,” the man says. “He’s not running. He’s curious, which is the sketchy part.”

Hunting coyotes is legal year round in Maryland so long as the person has a hunting license, which costs $35 and requires completing a safety course, and furbearer permit, which costs another $5, according to the Department of Natural Resources. Hunters are allowed to kill coyotes with firearms, archery gear and trapping equipment.

It’s OK to hunt on designated public land and on a hunter’s private property or where they have written permission to hunt on someone else’s, Maryland Natural Resources Police spokesperson Hunter Dortenzo said. However, he added, it is illegal to shoot wildlife within 150 yards of any building or occupied area or to discharge a firearm within 300 yards of a school while hunting.

“We have serious concerns about the circulating video,” Dortenzo said in an email, adding that his agency is aware of the Harwood incident and evaluating whether there were hunting violations. “If there’s one thing I can’t overstate enough — one of the key principles of hunter education in Maryland is to know your target, meaning understanding identifying features of the wildlife you are hunting.

“There is no excuse for wounding or killing an animal you can’t identify,” Dortenzo said.

Smith Wood said they identified the family in the video and drove to their home, about a mile away, to ask about Maisie.

A man greeted them in the driveway and summoned his wife or girlfriend when Smith Wood’s boyfriend said they were looking for the dog.

“She said, ‘Yeah, a coyote chased her off and she ran up the road,’” Smith Wood recalled.

They searched all night and into the next day.

Joshua Barry of Precision Drone Services - Deer Recovery and Lost Pet Search and Rescue, relieved the first drone pilot. Using cameras that pick up heat signatures, he scanned some 600 to 800 acres. After about four hours, he hadn’t seen anything and his eyes were growing weary.

“You just kind of look at the client and say, ‘Ok, now we gotta wait for a sighting’ or something like that,” Barry said. “That’s sort of what happened with Maisie.”

Smith Wood got a phone call from her daughter around the time Barry was packing up his drone. It was nearly midnight Tuesday.

“She said, ‘I don’t know how to tell you this. But this guy just called me that did the video and said his dad shot her,’” Smith Wood. “I couldn’t talk. No words. And then I’m like, ‘Is she dead?’ She said yes.”

Smith Wood was shocked.

Then enraged.

“They made up a story that a coyote chased her off instead of saying, ‘Oh my god, I am so sorry, we were scared. We thought it was a coyote. This is what happened,’” Smith Wood said.

Despite her fury, she added, “I honestly told my daughter to tell them if they gave me back her body I would not press charges, I would not go to the police.”

Smith Wood said her daughter talked to the family twice more. They allegedly told her the dog’s body was gone.

She posted the video she received Monday night on Facebook. It went viral. Outraged viewers contacted the authorities.

Anne Arundel County Police spokesperson Marc Limansky said a report was filed around 4 p.m. Wednesday by someone “claiming they believed their dog had been shot.”

An investigator with the department’s Southern District Detective Unit is looking into what happened.

“The detective is working on speaking with all the parties involved to determine what happened and, once that happens, to determine if any charges are applicable,” Limansky said. “There is no reason to not believe the information. There’s nothing to discredit it.”

In an interview Thursday, Smith Wood denounced any hatred spurred by her raising awareness about Maisie’s story.

“If it’s a coyote and you’re scared, call 911. This should never happen,” Smith Wood said. “Maisie is the most friendly dog. She would’ve came to them. Even if they put their hand out the window, she would’ve came and licked them.”

Smith Wood is adamant that she doesn’t want to press charges so long as her dog’s body is returned to her.

She wants to bury Maisie in the yard next to their late German shepherd Lexi.