Florida – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a Thursday press conference that the pets, a 4-year-old pregnant Chihuahua named Daisy and two cats named Luna and Pancake, died suddenly within hours of each other on Aug. 16.
“They were loved by their family,” Judd said at the press conference, shared on Facebook. “The children and all of the victims of the family are devastated.”
The owners called the police in the last moments of one of the pet’s life, and the agriculture crimes unit took over the investigation.
After months of working with the University of Florida, Texas A&M University and Michigan State University, the detectives determined the pets were poisoned by Phorate, an insecticide.
Judd said they also found Phorate in a bowl of food the neighbor had put out.
Tamesha Knighten, a 51-year-old licensed practical nurse from Lakeland, was arrested Wednesday and charged with three felony counts of animal cruelty, one for each of the animals’ deaths, and an additional charge of exposing poison in a public place.
Daisy, Luna and Pancake’s humans told detectives that Knighten had previously threatened to poison the pets if they came into her yard. They also said Knighten had yelled at the family’s children that day.
Judd said detectives reviewed surveillance footage of Knighten, wearing a plastic glove, putting a Styrofoam bowl containing what looked like food out. Judd said she told detectives she put the bowl of chicken with her “special seasoning” out to feed the animals in the area.
She also told detectives the pets were coming over into her yard and might have gotten into her ant killer, according to Judd. But he said they did not find ant killer in the pets’ systems.
“This suspect, despite all evidence to the contrary, repeatedly denied killing her neighbor’s pets, even telling our detectives that she’s a nurse and had too much to lose,” Judd said in a press release. “It takes a cold-hearted person to poison and kill two cats and a pregnant dog—it’s hard to imagine how a person in the medical field could do such a thing.”
Knighten posted bail Thursday and a phone number listed for her went directly to voicemail. A representative from the Polk County Clerk of Courts and Comptroller said her attorney information was not yet available.
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