Jerod Mayo's Dog Found Dead at Trainer's Home After Missing For Two Months

Jerod Mayo calls the dog trainer's actions "disgusting and inhumane"

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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.