Jerod Mayo's Missing Dog Found Dead In Dog Trainer's Closet

Knox, the pet English bulldog of former New England Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo, went missing back in June, while in the custody of his trainer. On Sunday, the Rhode Island SPCA found the dog’s dead body, in the trainer’s house, where she’d been hiding it.

From the SPCA’s statement:

Knox died while in the custody of the trainer, Amelia Ferreira. Ferreira is being charged by the Cranston Police Department, with one count of Obstruction, for concealing evidence relevant to this investigation. Evidence revealed that Ferreira has known the whereabouts of Knox’s deceased body for several weeks and intentionally concealed his body from authorities. Cause of death is currently unknown, and additional charges relating to animal cruelty may follow, pending the results of a necropsy.

According to a Boston.com article on the dog’s death, Ferreira first told Mayo and police that Knox had run off during a walk in the park; searchers found his collar on one of the park trails but couldn’t locate him. Later the trainer changed her story, this time claiming that Knox had escaped his crate in her home. Evidently she neglected to mention that she’d already stuffed his corpse into a trash bag and stashed it in a closet.

From Mayo’s appropriately heartbroken and outraged Instagram post in response to the news:

IT’s disgusting and inhumane that a company full of “dog lovers” would hide a family pet IN A CLOSET FOR TWO MONTHS and compulsively lie and send us on a wild goose hunt and our kids on an emotional rollercoaster. Staging him running away, him being stolen, even him drowning having us knocking on doors sending us false leads as we searched two states. We’ve hired scuba teams, private investigators, lawyers and more when they knew they HAD HIM IN THEIR HOME IN A TRASH BAG tucked away the whole two months. Yeah A TRASH BAG! We raised Knox like our child as you guys can see from our photos and those of you who know us. It hurts to have to accept that our beloved Knox was thought of as trash as they saw our family hurting.