Murphy, the lost dog who stole Waterbury’s hearts, crosses the rainbow bridge
June 24, 2025 | By Wilson Ring At home in 2022. Murphy: July 11, 2011-June 9, 2025. Photo by Wilson Ring
Murphy, the lost golden retriever who wandered Waterbury Center for over a year, captivating the community that collectively pulled for his capture, crossed the rainbow bridge earlier this month.
Murphy died in his sleep on June 9, just a few weeks short of his 14th birthday, an extra-long life for a golden retriever, a breed not known for longevity.
It was as though Murphy wanted back the 559 days he spent living outside, alone among the homes of Stowe and later Waterbury Center from 2014 until early 2016, including one of the coldest winters on record.
“He loved to roll and squirm in the snow or grass; he would sleep at the foot of our bed until he was unable to climb stairs,” owner Ed Hamel of Morristown said in a recent message about Murphy’s passing. “He loved his treats and belly rubs. He is missed a lot.”
Murphy was just another pet golden retriever in Vermont until late June 2014, when the car he was riding in hit a tree after it went off Stowe’s Mayo Farm Road, just short of the intersection with Weeks Hill Road.
The car was being driven by Kirstin Campbell, Ed’s granddaughter, who was shaken up in the crash. When she opened the rear door to check on Murphy, he bolted.
Experts say that it’s not unusual for dogs to be spooked after a traumatic event like a car crash or house fire. They go into survival mode in which they don’t recognize their owners and won’t come when called – it doesn’t mean, as some suggested, that they had been abused by their owners.
Despite efforts by Ed, his wife Pat, and Kirstin’s friends to catch him, Murphy roamed for weeks in Stowe near where he’d fled the crashed car before he roamed about eight miles south to Waterbury Center. The missing dog that would be frequently spotted by the side of the road became a local Waterbury celebrity as the community rooted for his return.
For months, Murphy sightings and concerns were regularly posted on Front Porch Forum, the local online community bulletin board. “Every night I look up at the stars and pray that he is looking up at them, too,” said one community member in a post in February 2015.
Jan. 5, 2015: Murphy pays a nighttime visit to a trap with food set for him in Ring’s yard, but he stays out. Photo by Wilson Ring
It was because of the early efforts of Waterbury dog lover and volunteer Lisa Lovelette to spread the word about the missing dog that I recognized Murphy when I first spotted him in my horse pasture on Dec. 7, 2014.
After I saw him, I put some dog food in a bucket near where I’d seen him. He quickly discovered the food and came to realize he could always find food in the field. Ed brought a homemade trap, but Murphy was too wary to allow himself to be captured. At one point, we even briefly caught him in the trap, but he chewed his way through the wire and escaped.
Jan. 13, 2015: On a bitterly cold day, a trail camera in Ring’s yard captures an image of Murphy visiting the trap set for him. Photo by Wilson Ring
Working with salt-of-the-earth Vermonter Ed, Erika Holm, then the Middlesex animal control officer whose love of dogs has made her a legend for her ability to catch lost canines, Lisa, and eventually the entire community, became for me a personal quest. It was 13 months between my first sighting of Murphy and when I made the best phone call of my life, telling Ed that Murphy was finally in human hands again.
“He taught us a lot, and that helped every other dog I captured after him,” Erika said of Murphy’s impact.
During the time I was looking for Murphy, I’d used a game camera that took thousands of photos and videos to monitor Murphy’s visits. At first, it almost seemed to me that he was having fun living in the wild. But as the second winter started, I think he was ready to go home, and he allowed himself to be caught.
Jan. 10, 2016: Murphy settles down in the trap, ending his 559 days on the run. Photo by Lucy Ring Thomas
After his ordeal, Ed said Murphy didn’t like the cold anymore, but he quickly settled back into family life.
Kirstin said that in his life since his adventure, Murphy became the patriarch to puppies from a number of litters and to four other goldens that eventually joined the family. Not surprisingly, Murphy slowed down as he aged.
“I miss him a lot, but I know he’s at peace and has found youth again in death,” Kirstin said. “I just see him running with friends at a beautiful pond.”
Former Waterbury Center resident and journalist Wilson Ring worked for the Associated Press in Vermont for more than 30 years, the last 12 as correspondent before retiring in 2023. Murphy’s saga was chronicled by national and Vermont news outlets, including the Boston Globe, New England Cable News, Seven Days and Vermont Community News Group in the Waterbury Record, the Stowe Reporter and the News and Citizen. Ring wrote about the search for and ultimate return of Murphy in Catching Murphy, a 2018 e-book in Amazon’s Missing series and a 2019 paperback published by the AP. Ring lives in Stowe and is a Waterbury Roundabout advisory board member.