Posted on 07/20/2020 3:12:40 PM PDT by digger48
A Kokomo woman whom officials say tortured and mutilated cats and dogs while filming the actions on social media was arrested Tuesday afternoon during a raid of her residence just outside Kokomo.
Local and federal authorities spent several hours searching the home near the intersection of Malfalfa and Zartman roads on Tuesday, according to a media release from the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Indiana.
Now, one of the home’s occupants, Krystal Cherika Scott, 19, faces felony charges related to animal cruelty.
According to Chris Bavender, of the FBI’s Indianapolis office, Scott is in federal custody.
Scott was arrested and charged with two counts of Making and Distributing Animal Crush Videos, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 48 (the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act), according to U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler.
“As decent human beings, we have a great responsibility to protect and have compassion for the animals that inhabit this earth,” Minkler said in a press release. “It is unconscionable to think that any human being could possibly bring themselves to such acts upon an animal. We cannot allow this behavior in a decent and moral society. That is why Ms. Scott must face the consequences of her choices.”
The release states that at the beginning at least on or about May 3, 2020, and continuing until at least July 8, Scott began posting images and videos over various social media platforms that depicted her torturing and graphically killing cats and dogs by hanging, skinning and other means.
Scott obtained the animals, at least in part, by responding to online ads from individuals who were seeking to give away their unwanted pets for adoption, the release states.
Scott’s alleged actions also created quite the firestorm across social media, with numerous Facebook groups and YouTube channels dedicated to locating Scott and “bringing her to justice,” one group stated.
Several of those groups began personally investigating Scott earlier this year, according to a document titled “Searching for the Cat Killer” that was sent to the Tribune.
According to information in that document, Scott had allegedly been “publicly live streaming” the mutilation of cats while “wearing a coyote mask or a cat skull mask” ever since November 2019 on the social media platform Omegle.
The document also appears to show graphic pictures that were taken from those alleged live streamed videos, where you can see Scott handling the mutilated bodies of the deceased cats before showing them to the camera.
Throughout the course of her alleged actions, Scott also appeared to use several different aliases, the document indicated, such as “Dixom Demon Fennec,” “guesswhoboysssss” and “spratwort.”
Under those alleged aliases, Scott would talk about making several purchases of kittens and even some puppies, though the photos in the document only appeared to show cats being used in the videos posted to Omegle.
Along with the animals, Scott also showed images of her vehicle, along with the exterior and interior of her residence, in those live streams.
These images, the document indicated, were used by concerned witnesses of the videos to track down Scott and were also sent to authorities for investigation.
On June 16, 2020, the Boise, Idaho Police Department received information from some of those concerned citizens, and immediately opened an investigation. After reviewing the videos and images, the officers concluded that they constituted “animal crush videos,” which is a federal violation.
On June 18, the Boise Police Department contacted the FBI, which began working to identify the perpetrator.
The FBI Indianapolis Field Office joined the investigation, and learned that the Kokomo Police Department had recently contacted Scott after receiving similar animal cruelty complaints in May and June. At that time, Kokomo Police were unable to make an arrest and were unaware of the other investigations involving Scott.
Working in conjunction with the Boise Police Department and the Ada County Idaho Sheriff’s Office, the investigation revealed that Scott was responsible for torturing and killing the animals, then posting the videos, the release states.
As agents worked to gather evidence, Scott continued to post images of dead animals on Instagram and Tik-Tok as late as July 8. A search warrant was approved on July 9.
On Tuesday, special agents of the FBI and other law enforcement officers executed the warrants. During the search, the FBI recovered numerous animal parts and skulls that were consistent with the size of cats and dogs. Agents also discovered approximately three live dogs, 12 live cats, and several lizards.
The FBI recovered and seized the cellular phone used to produce and distribute the animal crushing videos. A full forensic analysis of the phone is currently underway.
“Animal abusers have total power over that animal and, if someone is willing to be that cruel to an animal, evidence suggests they may target vulnerable humans as well,” said Special Agent in Charge Paul Keenan, FBI Indianapolis.
“In November of 2019, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act was passed to address this issue and to assist law enforcement to better target intervention efforts with respect to animal cruelty and the crimes for which it serves as a marker. Our agents and law enforcement partners will continue to diligently work to identify and investigate those who would perpetrate these crimes.”
After news broke of Scott’s arrest, several of those individuals who have been trying to track her down for months took to social media once again to share the news.
Kokomo resident Missy Kelly — in a viral Facebook post from Tuesday that appears to show authorities carrying items from Scott’s residence — wrote, “Careful who you give your free animals to. The Kokomo chick being raided right now had several fake FB pages and was ‘allegedly’ collecting free animals, torturing, killing and chopping them up. She claims she is a taxidermist.”
Another Facebook group set up to help identify and investigate Scott titled “SDKD Cat Killer Info & Updates” simply has a picture of Scott on the top of the page with red letters covering her face that read “arrested.”
According to Assistant United States Attorney Tiffany Preston, who is prosecuting this case for the government, the defendant faces up to seven years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a maximum fine of $250,000.
Support local journalism. (snip)
I had to stop reading the article that came up on my cell phone, quite a bit more graphic than this, so I wouldn't post it if I could. I had to stop reading it or my BP was going to blow an artery somewhere
Kill her!
Supposedly searching the property
ow, this part is just scuttlebug that I've picked up, so don't take it to the bank just yet
Treat her the same...Make a crush video.
Real time slo-mo.
One question, does animal crushing tenderize dogs and cats before you eat them?
Thank you for posting the pic of this POS
you suck
Somebody had to hold their nose and do it. I’m somebody.
She shoulda just abused kids. She could have gotten a degree in psychology or child behavior or social (all the same thing basically, German experimental psychology) and then tortured the kids with physical abuse, locking them in boxes, weird therapies and drugs, etc. Then instead of being under arrest she could be on the talk show circuit and get a govt grant.
Dittos to that 617! It seems the DU has let it’s little kiddies out early today so they could infiltrate over to FR and post crap like that.
I hope a deranged serial killer visits you.
She looks like a psycho. Probably Antifa.
Lighten up Francis. Do I have to put a sarcasm tag on everything?
Thank you. God didn’t create innocent animals to be tortured and killed.
She may be post-abortive.
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