Tennessee: Caroline Miller charged with 15 counts of abuse after abandoned, starved, dead dogs found

TENNESSEE -- Neighbors turn in a Johnson County woman and now she’s charged with nine counts of aggravated cruelty to animals, and six counts of cruelty to animals.

The Session Court affidavit states a deputy went to talk to those neighbors on Nov. 9. They said Caroline Jessie Miller had moved out a few weeks before and left a lot of animals.

We should warn you, the rest of the story is disturbing.

According to the affidavit, a neighbor told the deputy he “had been smelling something dead and thought it might be coming from his neighbor’s house.”

A woman said they used to hear a lot of dogs barking “but it didn’t seem like there were as many as before.”

They said Miller had about a gallon of dog food and a gallon of water, a week earlier.

They went to the house and found a German Shepherd tied up by the side of the house, a Great Dane tied to the porch, and a Yellow Lab and Husky-like dog in a kennel.

They also saw what looked like two dead cats in a cage and two dead dogs in a kennel with two skulls next to them.

There was also a dead dog behind an out building.

In the back, they found a dead rabbit in a cage, and a dead dog in another.

They looked inside and saw a dog that was alive.

They went inside and found a dead Poodle behind the front door and a Husky alive, tied up in the kitchen.

They could also hear a dog locked in the bathroom.

They called Mountain City Animal Control which came and helped gather the six dogs that were still alive.

The landlord told authorities Miller had dogs at the home but he didn’t know they were still there.

A neighbor said Miller had been living with a man, they had a young child, and she talked about returning to pay some rent money she owed.

On Nov. 14, police talked to the neighbor again, who said Miller “was going to try to get her dogs back and wanted to know which shelter the dogs were at.”

Miller was arrested the next day. Bail was set at $1,500 for each of the nine aggravated cruelty to animals charges, and $5,000 for each of the six cruelty to animals charges.

The affidavit lists her place of employment as a pet grooming business.

(WCYB - Dec 1, 2015)