A Florida sheriff says her department spent hundreds of hours investigating a viral animal cruelty report that turned out to be a lie.
Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook released a video statement on Monday offering an unexpected update to a case that went viral in May after a couple alleged a group of kids tried to drown the dog at a boat ramp in Middleburg: the entire claim was a lie.
Cook said Zachary and Amber Manning filed a report on May 20 allegedly a group of four or five kids ages 9 to 13 tried to drown their Chihuahua mix Ghost at the Main Street Boat Ramp on May 17, throwing it, holding it underwater, and otherwise abusing it.
The Mannings alleged that a nearby family rescued Ghost from the children, but that the dog died a few days later as a result of the incident.
The sheriff’s office released a video on June 10 in which Detective Gary Winterstein stood alongside the boat ramp and showed photos of Ghost, seeking the public’s help identifying the juveniles responsible.
Facebook/Clay County Sheriff’s Office
In her Monday update, Cook said the Mannings avoided investigators for several weeks, until they were finally confronted and admitted the whole thing was a ruse. They said they lied in an effort to convince their landlord, who didn’t allow pets, to let them keep Ghost.
According to veterinarians, the dog died of natural causes, Cook said.
“Our detective Winterstein and all of the detectives in our agency spent hundreds of hours chasing down leads, canvassing the neighborhood, interviewing people, and put a lot of work into this,” Cook said. What they found was a woman who recalled seeing the dog at the boat ramp, and when she mentioned to the owners that she would like a dog just like it, they said they were trying to “rehome” the animal.
Instead of rehoming the dog, the couple concocted the animal abuse story believing it would gain their landlord’s sympathy.
“We put hundreds of hours of work into this. Hundreds of hours of work that could have gone into a real crime,” Cook said. She also thanked Detective Winterstein, whom she said “took quite a bit of abuse online” over the last several weeks as community members voiced their anger over the seeming lack of progress finding the alleged perpetrators.
“People calling, people sending us emails, and Detective Winterstein was oftentimes just taking a brutal public condemnation for not solving this crime fast enough,” she said.
“The two people who concocted this story, we are working with the state attorney’s office now to hold them accountable,” she added.
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