Warning: This story contains graphic details about animal torture and abuse.
(This story was updated to add new information.)
A woman on probation in a brutal animal torture case was cited for 12 violations of Indianapolis’ animal care law on June 21, despite a court order banning her from all contact with animals through 2028.
Krystal Cherika Scott, 24, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in 2021 as part of a plea deal after posting online videos of herself hanging and skinning cats and dogs.
Earlier this week, Indianapolis authorities found her and two others in a U-Haul van in a restaurant parking lot. In the back of the windowless van, animal control officers found 12 cats and dogs.
None of the animals had access to food or water and were “forced to stand” in a pile of feces, according to the animal control officer’s report. The inside of the van smelled “like a deceased animal,” the officer wrote, though all were alive.
Animal control took the animals. Authorities couldn’t figure out who owned each animal, so all three were cited. Each citation carries a fine between $25 and $200. No criminal charges have been filed, according to court records.
Fountain Square man tracks down woman tied to animal torture
Authorities were alerted to the animals in the back of the van by Kyle Christie, a Fountain Square resident who’d had a strange interaction with the group of three earlier. Christie and his next-door neighbor had been using social media to look for the owner of a German Shepherd that they’d found. Scott reached out and said the dog was hers, he said.
On June 18, Scott and her two friends arrived at Christie’s neighbor’s house to pick up the dog. The German Shepherd “did not have a positive reaction to seeing them,” an animal control officer wrote after watching doorbell camera footage of the interaction.
When Christie asked for proof of the dog’s ownership, the interaction became tense enough for him to call the police. The officers who responded ultimately said the dog needed to be given to Scott and her friends, however.
Within 10 minutes of the dog’s departure, Christie looked Scott up online and learned that she had the same name as the Kokomo woman who’d spent time in federal prison for killing an animal she obtained through social media.
He went to a homeless camp near his house to see if anyone had information about Scott, who’s known to stay there. A man living in the camp showed Christie a gruesome scene: a mutilated dog, wrapped in a trash bag and buried in a shallow grave.
Christie couldn’t sleep that night. The next morning, his sister and her boyfriend drove around Indianapolis, trying to find the U-Haul van.
After five hours, they saw it parked outside a fast food restaurant at East Washington Street and Southeastern Avenue, with two or three people sleeping in the front seat.
They called the authorities. Police and animal control found a dozen severely dehydrated animals living in filth.
Christie, who had taken a video of the dead dog’s remains at the homeless camp, gave it to police. Investigators said in a report that there wasn’t direct evidence linking Scott to the deceased dog.
A search of Scott’s name in police databases revealed that she was on probation with the federal government. Police planned to contact her probation officer, an incident report said. IMPD confirmed that the office has been contacted and is aware of the incident.
What is ‘animal crushing?’
‘Animal crushing’ refers to extreme and intentional acts of torture inflicted upon animals, often for the purpose of creating shock films.
While the creation and distribution of media showing the torture was made illegal by the Animal Crush Prohibition Act of 2010, a 2019 law – the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act – also made the underlying cruelty a federal crime.
Indiana woman was first person charged under ‘crushing’ law
Scott was the first person charged under a 2019 law that grants the federal government jurisdiction over extreme animal torture cases, according to a sentencing memorandum filed in her case. Her case generated national attention at the time and sparked conversations among millions of viewers on YouTube.
The FBI began investigating her in June 2020 after she posted a kitten torture video on Instagram.
Federal court documents revealed that local police had investigated Scott for animal abuse twice without finding enough evidence to press charges.
In May 2020, officers with the Kokomo Police Department found two dead cats in her freezer. Scott said they’d died naturally. In June 2020, Scott handed her cellphone over to police, but they found nothing incriminating.
Scott would later admit that she gave Kokomo police a decoy phone to avoid detection.
But that tactic didn’t work for long. Her horrific uploads had drawn the attention of online sleuths. They believed she lived in Idaho based on an old post, and they contacted police in Boise.
A detective with the Boise Police Department got in touch with the FBI, who began an investigation. They learned that the posts had come from an IP address in Kokomo.
Federal agents raided the property and arrested Scott in July 2020.
The FBI recovered “animal parts and skulls that were consistent with the size of cats and dogs,” according to court documents. Agents also found a menagerie of live animals on the property: three dogs, 12 cats and several lizards.
“(Scott) claims that her ‘good side’ loves cats and dogs, but that her ‘bad side’ tells her to commit acts of animal cruelty, including killing animals by strangulation and other means,” an FBI agent wrote.
In a custodial interview, Scott admitted to killing a kitten on video and uploading it to Instagram.
She later pleaded guilty to two counts of animal crushing, which refers to intentionally torturing live animals, often on video.
Scott was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison on Nov. 10, 2021. She was released on June 29, 2023, according to the Bureau of Prisons’ database.
Her release was followed by five years of probation, which banned “non-incidental” contact with animals. The terms of her probation were modified twice after her initial sentencing, but the changes are not available to the public.
The U.S. Probation Office for the Southern District of Indiana was not able to offer comment, a representative said. The U.S. District Attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Scott is ordered to appear in Marion County Court on July 21 to answer for the animal care citations.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Woman on federal probation for ‘animal crushing’ found with dogs, cats in Fountain Square
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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