A woman drowned her dog in an airport bathroom after being denied boarding, police say

Travellers wait in line for security in the east hall atrium at Orlando International Airport, Thursday, May 25, 2023 in Orlando, Fla. (Joe Burbank /Orlando Sentinel via AP, File)

ORLANDO, Fla. — A woman drowned her dog in a Florida airport bathroom and then boarded her international flight after she was prevented from bringing the white miniature schnauzer with her because of a paperwork issue, authorities said.

The woman was arrested in Lake County on Wednesday on a charge of aggravated animal abuse, a third-degree felony. She was released on $5,000 bail.

“This act was intentional and resulted in a cruel and unnecessary death of the animal,” said an arrest affidavit from the Orlando Police Department.

Online court records showed no attorney listed for the woman from Kenner, Louisiana.

The investigation into the death of the 9-year-old schnauzer named Tywinn started in December when a janitor found the dog in a trash bag in a bathroom stall at Orlando International Airport.

The janitor earlier had seen the woman in the stall cleaning up water and dog food from the stall’s floor. The janitor was pulled away for a cleanup emergency and returned to the bathroom 20 minutes later where she found Tywinn in the trash container, along with a companion vest, collar, rabies tag, a dog travel bag and a bone-shaped dog tag with the woman’s name and phone number, investigators said.

Airport surveillance cameras captured the woman speaking for 15 minutes to a Latam Airlines agent with the dog in tow, walking into a bathroom near the ticketing area with the dog and exiting the bathroom without Tywinn less than 20 minutes later. The woman then went outside the terminal building, reentered a short time later, passed through security and boarded the Colombia-bound plane, the report said.

Authorities said the woman had been told she could not bring her dog aboard because she did not have the proper paperwork. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, dogs traveling from the U.S. to Colombia must be accompanied by a veterinarian-issued health certificate and a rabies vaccination certificate.

The dog was identified by its implanted microchip and a necropsy determined that Tywinn had been drowned. U.S. Customs and Border Protection also confirmed to detectives that the woman had boarded a flight to Bogota, Colombia, and then flew to Ecuador.