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Olivia W. Hill

Age : 3

Gender : Female

Race : White

Date : 08/11/2025

Location : Backyard of residence, Burlington

City : Burlington

County : Kit Carson

State : Colorado

Agency : Kit Carson County Sheriff’s Office, Burlington Police Department

Officer(s) :Nathan Hill

Cause of Death : K9

Event : Child killed by former police K-9 in police chief’s home

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 08/11/2025, 3-year-old Olivia W. Hill was fatally attacked by a German shepherd that had previously served as a Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Office narcotics-detection K-9 and had subsequently been transferred to the Burlington Police Department. The dog was being housed at the Burlington home of Police Chief Nathan Hill, Olivia’s father, when it killed her in the backyard.
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Olivia’s full name was Olivia Willette Hill. She was born on 04/12/2022 and died on 08/11/2025. Her obituary identifies her parents as Nate and Kate Hill and her older brother as Jamison.
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The dog, named Draco, was a German shepherd that had served as a narcotics-detection K-9 for the Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Office. Cheyenne County discontinued its K-9 program, and Draco was taken out of service. The dog was then donated to the Burlington Police Department.
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Rather than being housed at a police facility, kennel or other municipal location after the transfer, Draco was being kept at Chief Nathan Hill’s private residence. Authorities said the dog was not actively working for Burlington police at the time.
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Authorities also said Draco had been trained for narcotics detection but had not been trained in bite work, protection or suspect apprehension. That distinction is important because this was not a death caused during deployment of a police apprehension dog. It involved a former working police dog that remained under police-department control and was being housed at the police chief’s family residence after its previous agency eliminated the K-9 program.
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Kit Carson County dispatch received the report of a child being attacked by a dog. Sheriff Travis Belden and Deputy Darrin Newberry responded to Chief Hill’s residence. They found Olivia unresponsive in the backyard with her mother. Draco was no longer attacking Olivia when they arrived and had been secured in a kennel.
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Emergency medical personnel transported Olivia to Kit Carson County Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. No other injuries were reported.
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Draco was removed from the property and taken to the Burlington Dog Pound, where the dog was euthanized.
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The Kit Carson County Sheriff’s Office investigated the death because Olivia was the daughter of Burlington’s police chief and the dog had been transferred to his department. Authorities characterized the death as a tragic incident rather than a criminal matter.
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The transfer and housing arrangements are central to the case. Draco had ceased working for Cheyenne County because that sheriff’s office terminated its K-9 program, but instead of simply becoming a privately owned retired dog, reporting states that the animal was donated to the Burlington Police Department. Chief Hill was then keeping the department’s former working dog at his home.
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That creates an important distinction for the database. Olivia was not killed by an ordinary privately owned pet with no law-enforcement connection. Draco was a government-trained former K-9 that had been transferred from one law-enforcement agency to another and was being housed by the receiving agency’s police chief when the fatal attack occurred.
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The investigation therefore should establish precisely when and under what terms Cheyenne County transferred Draco to Burlington, whether ownership legally passed to the Burlington Police Department or directly to Hill, who authorized the transfer, what behavioral and veterinary records accompanied the dog, what risk assessment was conducted before placing the former K-9 in a home with young children, and what Burlington’s intended future disposition of the dog was.
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The family's obituary describes Olivia as a child who loved unicorns, flamingos, turtles, the color pink and dancing to music. Her family asked people attending her celebration of life to wear pink in her honor.
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OFFICER BACKGROUND
Nathan Hill was Olivia’s father and chief of the Burlington Police Department. The former Cheyenne County Sheriff’s Office K-9 had been donated to Hill’s department and was being housed at Hill’s residence when it killed Olivia.
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This case differs substantially from the typical fatal police-K9 encounter because Hill did not deploy Draco against Olivia and the dog was no longer actively working. The law-enforcement accountability issue instead concerns the transfer, custody and housing of a former government K-9 at the police chief’s private home with young children.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://people.com/former-k-9-kills-3-year-old-daughter-of-police-chief-deadly-attack-11790163
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/former-police-k9-kills-colorado-child-kit-carson-county/
https://www.denver7.com/news/local-news/burlington-police-chiefs-3-year-old-daughter-killed-by-departments-k-9
https://www.kktv.com/2025/08/12/colorado-police-chiefs-3-year-old-daughter-killed-dog-attack-involving-former-k9/
https://www.police1.com/k-9/former-colo-k-9-kills-police-chiefs-3-year-old-daughter-in-home-incident
https://nypost.com/2025/08/13/us-news/colorado-police-chiefs-toddler-killed-by-k-9-named-draco
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/olivia-hill-obituary?id=59192922