- Texas, USA -
On Friday August 4, 2023, The Collin County Sheriff’s Office arrested 22-years-old RACHEL ANN SWORD (pictured) after several animals were found deceased and some of them were still chained in cages at a property on Graybill Road in Westminster.
Before SWORD’s arrest, the authorities were alerted to the situation multiple times.
Fox 4 Dallas-Forth Worth reports that the sheriff’s office said, “since 2019 there have been sixteen calls of animal complaints or animal cruelty to this exact home.”
According to CBS News Texas, a family of landscapers made the gruesome discovery and reported it to the authorities “more than once.”
After the sheriff’s office followed up the complaint, investigators along with Collin County Animal Control executed a seizure warrant on the property on Tuesday, August 1, 2023.
Officials found twenty-four (24) dead dogs “in advanced states of decomposition”, as well as the remains of twelve (12) horses.
“The decay on the horses ranged from completely skeletonized to partially skeletonized with skin and fur, generally indicating the deaths were not recent,” stated the affidavit.
Two dogs, two frogs, two horses, one cow, one lizard, and one snake were found alive and placed in the care of Animal Control.
CBS News Texas identified the landscapers as Mike Watrous and his step-son Alston Mays.
Mr. Mays explained to the news agency that they were hired to trim trees and clean up trash.
He said: “We talked to the lady—my boss did...She was saying that there was a dead dog in the back somewhere.”
She obviously lost count of the deceased animals lying around.
Mr. Mays further told CBS News Texas that wherever he looked there were decomposing dogs in cages. Mr. Mays went on to say: “They had a pen in the middle of the yard, no shade, no nothing—dead dog in there...There was a dead animal in each cage.”
At that point the crew called the authorities.
Mr. Watrous told CBS News Texas that his wife called authorities on one occasion after the crew found a dead dog in the yard but it’s unclear whether that incident was ever investigated.
Three years later, the crew shows up to do some work and found themselves in a grisly scenario.
According to FOX 4, the affidavit states that the property belongs to SWORD’s grandparents and they assumed their granddaughter was taking care of the animals. Investigators were pointed to the RV SWORD lived in on the east side of the home. Inside the RV, investigators found more dead dogs.
When the search warrant was executed on Tuesday, SWORD told investigators that she and her daughter were living in the RV. She admitted she was in charge of caring for the animals but blamed depression due to her husband’s recent suicide for not feeding them.
SWORD was charged with cruelty to non-livestock animals, a third-degree felony and cruelty to livestock animals/abuse, a state jail felony.
Online records show SWORD is being held in the Colling County Jail on a $85,000 bond.
The sheriff's office said the investigation is ongoing.
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Details may be removed or additional information may be provided in future should such sources report an update.
SWORD’s mugshot shared from the Collin County Jail.
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