After more than two months of searching, the quest to find former Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo’s missing dog has come to an unfortunate end. On Sunday, Knox, Mayo’s five-year-old English bulldog, was found dead in the home of his trainer in Cranston, R.I., according to the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Knox had been missing since June 28. Amelia Ferreira, whose home Knox’s body was recovered from, is being charged with one count of obstruction for concealing evidence relevant to the investigation, per the RISPCA. In a statement, the RISPCA said Ferreira knew of Knox’s deceased body “for several weeks” and purposely hid its location from authorities. Mayo left Knox with Ferreira on May 24. When he returned to pick up Knox a few weeks later, however, Ferreira alleged she didn’t know of his whereabouts. Initially, Ferreira told Cranston police she lost Knox while walking another dog. She later changed her story, saying she last saw the dog at her home in a crate, but he escaped while she was gone. Mayo was suspcious. “The thing about Knox, he couldn’t even walk down the street without huffing and puffing,” he told NBC 10 News. Mayo posted the following statement on Instagram: "Unfortunately, the answers we prayed for regarding Knox aren’t ones we were ready to face. Knowing what we know now about @offleashk9trainingprov@offleashk9training we mentally explored every outcome possible and the reality is we were right. Knox has passed and his BODY WAS FOUND IN THE HOME OF THE OFFLEASH TRAINER. 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. Currently all that these people are facing is obstruction. Not animal cruelty or filing false police reports or for plain ole tossing someone’s family member in a trash bag and storing it! From the Mayo family, we want to thank all of the people who spent countless hours looking for Knox. To our social media family, thank you for posting every day. We still have work to do.....we need to bring awareness to this problem so it never happens again. This is just getting started" Mayo garnered support from the NFL in his efforts to trace Knox. On July 4, the league published a missing dog posting on its site, noting the former two-time Pro Bowler was offering a cash reward for whomever found his dog. “Cause of death is currently unknown and additional charges relating to animal cruelty may follow, pending the results of a necropsy,” the RISPCA said in its statement.<doc-sep>Advertisement Jerod Mayo's dog found dead after mysterious disappearance Share Shares Copy Link Copy More than a month after the dog of a former New England Patriots player went missing under mysterious circumstances, the dog’s body has been found.The Rhode Island SPCA said the body of Knox, a 5-year-old English bulldog owned by Jerod Mayo and his family, was found at the home of the dog’s trainer. The dog’s body was found in a home in Cranston, and died while in the custody of the trainer, Ameila Ferreira, the RISPCA said. Ferreira is being charged with one count of obstruction for concealing evidence relevant to the investigation. Officials said Ferreira knew the whereabouts of Knox’s body for several weeks and intentionally concealed the body from authorities.The cause of the dog’s death is not immediately known, and additional charges may be added depending on the results of a necropsy, the RISPCA said.The Wrentham Police Department said last month that the disappearance of Knox had “strange twists” and was unlike other missing pet reports. "Generally, we don't post about lost animals, but this story has a strange twist that suggests there may be more to the story," police said in a Facebook post. Police said Ferreira, who had been walking Knox and another dog in a conservation area in Wrentham, reported that the bulldog vanished while he was attending to the other dog. Police cast doubt on the claim that the dog had run off and vanished quickly on its own, noting English bulldogs have short legs and are known to be poor runners. Police also noted that Knox’s electronic collar was found nearby, but the special collar, used specifically for training dogs, did not have any marks of blood, fur or signs of being removed forcibly or torn off, police said. Mayo’s family took to social media urging the safe return of the dog after its disappearance. “Our main concern is expediting his return so our family can have our dog back with us,” he said.<doc-sep>
A 5-year-old English bulldog that belonged to former Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo was found dead on Monday in Rhode Island, according to the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The RISPCA concluded an investigation this week in which they determined the dog's death occurred under the care of trainer Amelia Ferreira when his body was recovered at her home. Mayo's dog, Knox, was reported missing June 28 by Ferreira, who told the Wrentham (R.I.) Police Department the dog got lost on a walk, according to post on the department's Facebook page. The police did not find anything in the surrounding area but did locate the dog's collar on a trail nearby. Ferreira later changed her story to say Knox went missing after escaping from the crate in her apartment, according to Boston.com. The Cranston (R.I.) Police Department charged Ferreira with one count of obstruction, noting that "evidence revealed that Ferreira (had) 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," RISPCA officials said in an official statement on its website. Mayo posted on Monday a photo on Instagram of the dog with a lengthy statement that called the incident "disgusting and inhumane." The Wrentham Police Department's Facebook message in June sought information on the then-missing dog's whereabouts, in which "mysterious circumstances" were detailed. The post read: "The trainer called the police, the police responded, the area was searched, but no sign of Knox. Strange, because we're told English Bulldogs aren't the running type, short legs, bad cardio, so even if Knox wandered, the expectation was he'd be found quickly. But...he wasn't. "Now the twist. His collar was found relatively quickly after Knox went missing, a hop and a skip from where he was last seen, laying right out in the open, on the trail. And it's not an ordinary collar, it's an "E-Collar", a larger than normal collar, essentially an electronic collar device for training dogs." Mayo, 32, last played in the NFL in 2015. He spent his entire eight-season career with the Patriots, who selected him 10th overall in the 2008 draft.