SAN JOSE, Calif. — Elizabeth Holmes’ dog Balto, a husky she reportedly described as a wolf, was killed by a cougar, according to a letter from her partner Billy Evans to the judge who is set to sentence her next week for felony fraud.
The letter to Judge Edward Davila, dated Sept. 22, also confirmed that Theranos founder Holmes, who has a 16-month-old son with Evans, is pregnant again. Holmes was convicted in January of four counts of felony fraud, after defrauding investors in her Palo Alto blood-testing startup out of more than $144 million. Davila is to sentence her Nov. 18 in U.S. District Court in San Jose.
Evans wrote that after meeting Holmes at a Fleet Week charity event in 2017, the two would go for long walks with Balto. “He was her constant companion and she treated him with so much love,” Evans wrote in the letter, filed late Thursday. It was part of many letters of support submitted with Holmes’ legal argument for a sentence of community service with no imprisonment, or 18 months’ prison time at the maximum.
But Balto was “carried away by a mountain lion” from the couple’s porch, Evans wrote, without identifying the date or the location of their home. A July letter from a friend, also submitted with the filing, said the couple lived in the forested city of Woodside. A recent court filing indicated they were staying on a large estate.
“Liz had faith that (Balto) could still be alive,” Evans wrote. “She searched for 16 hours in brambles, and poison oak to find him. It was only once she saw his lifeless body that she could come to realize that he was gone. It crushed her.”
The letter from the friend, a Woodside restaurant owner who said he had known Holmes for four years, also referred to the death of Balto.
“Liz and Billy loved that dog as though it were their first child, and his passing was a major blow during an already challenging time,” wrote Tyler MacNiven, owner of Buck’s Restaurant. “Liz said Balto taught her what it meant to be free.”
After Balto’s death, Holmes and Evans “searched for the deeper spiritual meaning of it all,” MacNiven wrote.”Ultimately, while there is still sadness surrounding their loss, Liz made a point to learn from the love she shared with Balto and, in her words, ‘give hugs all the time.’ ”
