The deaths of eleven (11) innocent animals on August 16, 2023, finally led to the arrest of 51-years-old TAMESHA TOWNES KNIGHTEN (pictured), on January 3, 2024.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a press conference on January 4, 2024, and explained why it took so long to bring this case to a conclusion.
The investigation began when the animals’ family alerted the authorities after their two cats, Luna and Pancake, “died within hours of each other, both exhibiting the following symptoms: choking, unable to breathe, foaming from the mouth, and in obvious significant pain.”
According to a press release by the sheriff’s office, approximately four hours later, the family could not find their 4-year-old Chihuahua named Daisy, so they started looking for her. Sadly, Daisy was found lifeless. She was pregnant and expecting eight (8) puppies who lost their precious lives in their mom’s womb.
The family told detectives that KNIGHTEN “had repeatedly threatened to poison their pets if the pets came into her yard.”
The family also said that the day their furbabies died, they saw KNIGHTEN pacing in her yard along the shared fence line and she had also yelled at the family’s children while they were outside playing ball.
The family further stated that KNIGHTEN was also outside when they noticed one of their cats acting strangely in the yard, foaming at the mouth. The family said that KNIGHTEN told them the cat must be choking on a frog.
When detectives interviewed KNIGHTEN, she told them “she had placed ant bait outside on the ground around her air conditioning unit due to ants getting into the unit. When they looked in the victims’ yard, they found a white Styrofoam bowl on the ground, with a white meaty substance mixed with a dark colored material.” KNIGHTEN claimed she did not have any white Styrofoam bowls. However, when detectives looked in her pantry, they found a package of them and at that point KNIGHTEN said, “Oh, I guess I do have them.”
Additionally, detectives found canned chicken in her pantry, after she denied having any.
In KNIGHTEN’s backyard, were video cameras, so detectives asked to see the video from that day.
Footage showed KNIGHTEN wearing a blue glove, holding a white Styrofoam bowl containing a white and brown substance. In the video, KNIGHTEN can be seen talking to a relative and pointing at the neighbor’s yard.
When detectives asked KNIGHTEN what she was doing with the bowl, she responded that she did not know why or what was in it.
Detectives then asked KNIGHTEN why she was wearing a blue glove and she said she was picking up papers in her yard. However, when detectives looked in her trash can there were no papers.
Detectives told KNIGHTEN that it looked like the bowl contained tuna and to that KNIGHTEN said: “It wasn’t tuna, it was chicken.”
Detectives then asked what was on the chicken and KNIGHTEN said it was her “special seasoning.” KNIGHTEN told detectives she put the bowl of food outside to “feed animals in the area.”
Sheriff Judd explained that as part of the investigations, evidence sent to the University of Florida included samples from the Styrofoam bowl of chicken laced with the “special seasoning”, sample of the furbabies’ tissues taken during their necropsies, and sample of the ant bait. All of this was then analyzed by that school’s veterinary pathology department, as well as labs at Texas A&M University and Michigan State University.
According to Sheriff Judd, the chemical analysis confirmed that Daisy, Luna, and Pancake “had ingested Phorate, a pesticide found in insecticides, which matched the sample from the laced canned chicken in the bowl, and doctors stated that Phorate would have caused the animals to suffer.”
KNIGHTEN, a licensed practical nurse working for United Health Care at Wellmed in Lakeland, is now facing three felony counts of animal cruelty and one count depositing poison in a public area. Arrest records show she was released from the Polk County Jail the day after her arrest.
Sheriff Judd said: “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. Well guess what? These people lost their beloved pets in a most horrific way, and she lost her freedom by going to jail. 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.”
On a separate note, KNIGHTEN’s criminal history includes an arrest in September 2013, for aggravated battery (domestic) with a deadly weapon.
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KNIGHTEN’s mugshot shared from the Polk County Jail.
