Ajax died after a pickup struck him. Police are looking for the driver.

Her dog, Ajax, a six-year-old mixed breed, was pronounced dead at an emergency veterinarian after being struck near her home in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. Police are searching for the driver, with a vehicle description but no license plate from Cook and only limited surveillance video to work from, according to CBS Boston.⁠1

The appeal now extends to neighbors whose cameras might have recorded the pickup before or after the collision. That footage could provide what Cook could not capture in the moments she was trying to save Ajax: an identification that investigators can check.

Cook told CBS Boston she and Ajax were on their usual nighttime walk, about 200 yards from home, when she saw the truck approaching. She described it as traveling at a very high rate of speed and said she tried to wave the driver down. In her account, the truck struck Ajax as he ran toward her and did not slow until after the impact. No measured speed or police finding of speeding has been established in the available reporting.⁠1

Ajax yelped and ran a few yards away, Cook said. She ran after him, picked him up and pleaded with the driver to help. She said he briefly watched before leaving.⁠1

Cook carried Ajax home and then took him to an emergency veterinarian. She said events unfolded too quickly for her to get the truck's plate. Her account supplies the detail of the collision and its immediate aftermath; other local coverage corroborates the basic fatal collision and police search, rather than independently establishing everything she witnessed.⁠1⁠4

Cook described Ajax as a dog who stayed nearby and within earshot. She said he often walked off leash, wore a light around his collar and that she always carried a leash. Those descriptions of their routine do not independently establish his exact restraint status at impact, or settle responsibility for the collision.⁠1

“He would just, you know, put a smile on everybody's face,” Cook told CBS Boston. “He was a great dog.”⁠1

Police are seeking a black four-door pickup, believed to be a Ford F-150, with an open bed and no bed cover. CBS Boston identifies the model as an F-150; Boston.com and other local reporting qualify that identification. The cautious description matters: the model has not been definitively established, and a similar-looking truck would still need to be connected to this collision.⁠1⁠4⁠14

According to CBS Boston, police want people near Union Street, Beach Street, Masconomo Street, Proctor Street and Smith's Point to review home surveillance recordings. The request reaches beyond the immediate collision site, giving investigators a chance to find additional views of the vehicle.⁠1

But the published timing needs clarification. CBS Boston's October 28, 2026, article places the walk “around midnight on Tuesday” and gives the requested footage interval as “between Tuesday at midnight and Wednesday morning at 12:30 a.m.” Boston.com's October 28 report instead describes the collision as occurring in the early morning hours of Wednesday.⁠1⁠4

Neither account resolves the intended starting midnight for the recording search. The wording should not be turned into a confirmed 30-minute window—or a confirmed 24.5-hour one. The original police notice was not available for direct review, leaving the exact calendar date and intended interval unclarified.

For a resident scrolling through stored video, that is a practical problem, not a minor wording issue. A useful appeal needs to tell people which recordings to examine. More footage may help establish both the pickup's identity and what happened around the collision, but the search is harder to follow without a clear clock.

Massachusetts law imposes a specific duty when a motor vehicle strikes and injures or kills a dog or cat. General Laws chapter 272, section 80H says the operator must “forthwith report” the accident to the animal's owner or custodian, or to a police officer in the municipality where it happened. The verified first-offense provision sets a maximum fine of $100.⁠18

That reporting duty is not the same as an express requirement to transport an animal to a veterinarian. Nor does Cook's account of the driver's departure, by itself, establish a violation: the available case information does not establish whether he made a qualifying report.⁠18⁠1

The reporting reviewed for this article does not confirm a subsequent identification, arrest, charge or police finding of fault. That is a limit on what is established, not proof that investigators have made no progress. For now, the central task remains connecting the truck Cook described to a driver—and neighborhood recordings may be the strongest remaining route to doing that.⁠1⁠4⁠14