MINNEOLA, Fla.—A teenager is facing a charge of animal cruelty—excessively cruel, after putting the family cat in the dryer and killing it, according to an arrest affidavit.
Shortly before 6 p.m. Monday, Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a home on Plum Lake Drive in Minneola on a report of a suspicious incident. When they arrived, the mother of Cayden Mikkel Williams told a deputy her son had just killed the family cat, named “Mouse” by putting it in the dryer.
She said when she was coming into the neighborhood with her other children, she saw Williams walking and he motioned for her to stop. She rolled the window down and Williams reportedly said, “So Mouse…” She replied, “what?” and Williams responded, “so he was in the dryer,” the affidavit states.
She returned home and found Mouse the cat lying on top of the dryer wrapped in a piece of fabric, dead. Mouse had blood coming from its nose and its ears were burnt and Williams’ clothes were on the floor in front of the dryer. She told the deputy the dryer has a 70-minute timer and there were approximately 30 minutes left on the timer, indicating Mouse was in the dryer for possibly 40 minutes, according to the affidavit, and after a brief argument Williams left.
The deputy observed dried blood all over the inside of dryer, he noted in the affidavit.
Williams’ mother told the deputy they buried Mouse by his favorite bush in the yard and the deputy called LCSO Animal Control and they exhumed Mouse’s remains for evidence, according to the affidavit. Williams, who will turn 17 on Friday, came back home and told the deputy he knew why deputies were speaking to him and he said he put his clothes in the dryer and did not see Mouse or hear him making any sounds or a banging noise after he started the dryer.
Williams also told the deputy he did not want his mother or siblings to be loud after they found out Mouse was dead because he did not want law enforcement to be notified, the affidavit states.
Williams was arrested, transported to the Lake County Jail and turned over to the Department of Juvenile Justice.
