In a disturbing case of animal cruelty, a Florida nurse was arrested last week after a five-month investigation beginning when a neighbor’s two cats died within minutes of each other at their home in Lakeland. Just a few hours later, the neighbor’s four-year-old pregnant Chihuahua died which tragically included her eight unborn puppies.
Tamesha Knighten, 51, has been charged with the deaths of the cats – Luna and Pancake as well as the death of the dog named Daisy. Security footage showed Knighten placing a bowl of chicken out for the pets in her yard adding something; she referred to it as her “special seasoning.” When analyzed the “seasoning” contained phorate, a powerful and deadly insecticide.
According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, the tragic incident occurred on August 16 when all three of the pets died. As authorities from the sheriff’s office arrived, one of the cats was dying and in obvious agony.
The family told deputies Knighten had previously threatened to kill the cats and dog after they strayed into her yard. When Knighten came out of her home and saw the animals suffering, she suggested one of the cats had been “choking on a frog.”
It had been on Knighten’s own security camera that she could be seen wearing rubber gloves – filling a Styrofoam bowl with canned chicken and then adding a dark colored substance she referred to later as her “special seasoning.”
During the investigation, authorities exhumed the body of one of the cats and sent samples of the cat’s necropsy as well as the contents of the bowl to pathology at University of Florida, Texas A&M and Michigan State University, who collectively found the insecticide in the chicken and the pets.
Knighten, a licensed practical nurse, has been charged with three county of felony animal cruelty and one count of depositing poison in a public area. She denies killing her neighbor’s pets telling the authorities she is a nurse and has too much to lose.
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.
Grady Judd, Sheriff
(Additional news information supplied by Polk County Sheriff’s Office news release.)
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FIRST, “JAIL”—NEXT, “HELL”—WITH LOTS OF “KARMA” ALONG THE WAY!