Mom, daughter accused of animal abuse left trail

Investigation by Citrus County deputies led them online where they located a Facebook page put together by victims of the mother and daughter.

 

They were able to determine the mother and daughter have had issues with authorities dating back to 2005.

 

Freeman was acquitted.

 

Nygaar was convicted and spent 90 days behind bars.

 

At the time, Freeman was a nursing professor at Murray State University.

 

Four dead animals were found on their rental property along with several others that were malnourished and dehydrated, records show.  There were also dead cats and dogs found on the property.

 

Another 18 horses were left on the 45-acre property under the care of the landowners.

 

Nygaard went on to settle a lawsuit against her preventing the sale of nine of her horses that were seized.

 

2009-Mt. Vernon, Kentucky

 

According a report by the Rock Castle County Sheriff's Department, the duo rented a horse farm outside Mt. Vernon and another farm in Stanford.

 

Between both properties there were 28-32 horses.

 

Deputies say there was never any food or water for those animals.

 

The duo fled leaving the property owner to bury an estimated eight horses.

 

According to Kentucky deputies, the property was in terrible condition.  The women were reportedly going to the bathroom around the property because they failed to pay for a rental porta potty which was confiscated.  Deputies say they lived on air mattresses.

 

Skeletal remains of horses were also found at the property, including those of dead cats and dogs.

 

They left owing multiple vet bills and two small feed mill owners.  The feed bills were thousands of dollars, according to deputies.

 

2010-Woodford County, Kentucky

 

The women were next traced to Woodford County in Kentucky.

 

According to Woodford County Animal Control, multiple horses were uncared for and the duo fled in the middle of the night.

 

They owed roughly $21,000 in vet bills for the treatment of two hours.  They owed another animal clinic $141.

 

2011--Dyer, Tennessee

 

Feed store owner Scott Rabb spoke to ABC Action News via SKYPE and said he met both women in 2011.  They had rented a property about ten miles away from his feed store in Trenton, Tennessee.

 

"We took them on faith and started selling them feed and the first couple of months they paid for it and then after that, that was it," explained Rabb.

 

Rabb said he tried collecting his money and went to their leased property.

 

"That's when I saw there was a problem," Rabb said.

 

According to Rabb, the duo offered them a few of the horses to settle the bill. 

 

Rabb declined.

 

Deputies say there were 26 horses on the rental property.

 

"It was hide on bone," Rabb said.

 

When the duo disappeared, again, warrants were issued for animal cruelty.  However, when deputies could not find the duo, the warrants were never served.

 

During that time, the animals were quarantined for 30 days.

 

Rabb stepped up and fed the horses free of charge.

 

Then, he adopted 13 of them.  He would have taken them all, but the remaining 13 disappeared one night.

 

One of the horses had to be put down within a month.

 

Another five succumbed to disease.

 

Of those 13 adopted horses, only two horses are still alive.

 

"I pulled them out of three feet of feces, it was bad," Rabb explained.

 

ABC Action News made contact with Sherri Cupples.  Cupples had leased the property to Freeman and Nygaard.

 

"It's a complete horror story," said Cupples.

 

Cupples filed suit against Freeman and Nygaard for rent and damages.  Again, they were unable to be served because the fled in the middle of the night.

 

2012-Bigelow, Arkansas

 

Freeman and Nygaard showed up next in BIgelow, Arkansas.

 

Deputies say they destroyed a home, left owing money to the landowner for rent and to a feed store, and had abandoned three horses, cats and dogs.

 

It is during this time they contacted Shannon Greenhawn, a stable owner in Mayhorse, about boarding a horse.

 

"I said, 'Yes I had room for one', and she came and started boarding with me,” said Greenhaw.

“Shortly after that a couple of weeks later, a second horse popped up.  Well from that second horse it grew all the way to nine horses before July."

A police report filed with the Faulkner County Sheriff's Office shows the duo started boarding at Greenhaw's stable on March 12, 2012.

Greenhaw said the payments stopped coming from the women in June 2012.

A total of $5,000 was owed.

At first the women offered to pay Greenhaw in hay and she agreed.

The women made three payments before they once again stopped, the police report states.

Then, the Freemans talked Greenhaw into picking up a trailer in nearby Jefferson County.

Greenhaw ended up taking pity on the women and did that.  She would later learn they put the trailer in Greenhaw's name and the trailer was stolen.

On the night of November 16, 2012, the women disappeared in the middle of the night.

But they did something before they left.

"She came in the middle of the night., picked up her horses she still had here, along with all of her contracts  out of my office, and just completely disappeared," Greenhaw recalled.

After searching for the women, she found them in Cabot, Arkansas, in 2013.  That's when she learned the women had used aliases while in contact with her.

Fearful the duo had done this before and would continue to do this, Greenhaw made a Facebook page called, "Help Find Lee Frieman (AKA Kathleen Nygaard."

The group became secret as more and more people across four states came forward with similar stories.

However, before authorities before they vanished.

2012/2013-Lonoke, Arkansas

Investigators tracked the women to a rental property at 6505 Mt. Tabor Road.

But again, the women were one step ahead and had already fled, deputies say.

According to deputies, the property was so destroyed, the owner sold the property after they abandoned it.

While here, deputies say the women asked to test drive a car and drove off.

2013-2015 Floral City, Florida

According to Greg Jarmon Jr., the mother and daughter found his father's Haines Court rental property on Craigslist and contacted them about renting it.

When the women showed up, deputies say Freeman told Jarmon's father of her cancer diagnosis and used this to gain sympathy and a lower rent.

It's a story deputies in Citrus County learned was used for the past 10 years in prior states.

"That's how they ran up an $8,000 back rent bill here," said Deputy Michele Tewell.

According to Tewell, the mother and daughter embellished their sob story even further.

"He had a Marine emblem on his car and so they story they told is that my husband was in the Marines and he was killed," Tewell said.

The entire story made-up.

"My father took pity and wanted to help them out," said Jarmon Jr.

Jarmon Jr. explained the women showed up with a trailer and had at least two horses at the time.

Over the next two years, the women would acquire numerous cats, dogs, one turtle, five horses, 10 rabbits and eight goats.

Deputies believe the women adopted them, rescued them or stole them.

"Why they did this, we don't know, it is puzzling," said Lora Peckham, Animal Control supervisor.

Local feed store owners bought into their sad story and provided food at a lesser charge or agreed they women could make payments later.

They never did, according to deputies.

Most of the animals were left without food and water, ultimately starving to death.

However, the horrors of what was taking place at the property would go unknown until July 10.

At that time, the women had an older dog cremated by Floral City Animal, ABC Action News confirmed.

When the vet was unable to contact the women to pick up the ashes and pay their bill, they drove to the Haines Court property.  When no one answered the door, they contacted deputies.

Deputies immediately came out and conducted a well-fare check.

The home had been abandoned and what they found was disturbing.

"We found dead cats in garbage bags and we found liquefied dogs," said Heather Yates, spokesperson for the Citrus County Sheriff's Office.

Five of the rabbits were found dead in cages.   Locked in without food and water.

In a backyard stable, they found a horse dead on the ground. 

The horse was trying so hard to break free and find food, it chewed through the wood.  It also left hundreds of hoof marks on wood as it tried kicking its way out.

Four other horses and eight goats were found on the property alive.  It is believed they survived on rain water.

A turtle was also rescued.

According to Peckham, its not clear how many cats and dogs actually died, that is because the property owners hauled off four construction sized dumpsters of garbage when the took back possession.

"In that garbage, we were able to find one household garbage bag, where dead cats had literally been thrown out with the egg carton and the milk carton," Peckham explained.

Deputies and animal control officers did not go through those piles of garbage.

With the property being very rural and setback, neighbors did not smell the decay.

It was only after the horse began rotting that homeowners acres away smelled the odor.

"They referred to it as a giant litter box," Peckham said.

Jarmon Jr. told ABC Action News they had to gut them home.

He estimates there was $30,000 worth of damage.

"We are not going to be able to recover anything from them, that's doubtful, but the same time, what we saw, just the smell alone, we knew those animals were suffering, so it's nice to know they're being punished," Jarmon Jr. said.

Deputies also recovered the trailer and car stolen from Kentucky on the Floral City property.

MOTHER, DAUGHTER NOW FACING CHARGES

Deputies say they tracked down the duo at a Holiday Inn Express in Tampa on September 2.

They had one animal with them at the time, deputies say..

Both are now facing multiple felony counts of animal abuse.

They are being extradited by to Citrus County.

According to deputies, it is unlikely they will ever have to face the charges in prior states because most are misdemeanors and charges of that nature do not call for extradition.

"They need to be prosecuted to the fullest extent," Rabb said.

SOCIAL MEDIA HELPS DEPUTIES CONNECT CASES ACROSS STATES

On July 18, Greenhaw contacted deputies and animal control officers in Citrus County.

She alerted them to the Facebook page she set up and to her own story of victimization by the women.

It was through that social media site deputies were able to connect the other cases.

"The woman [Greenhaw] told she had created a Facebook page for people who had been victimized to discuss what had happened to them and to help find the perpetrators.  There were people coming out of the woodwork who had been scammed out of thousands of dollars by the Freemans," Peckham said.

The Facebook page was referred to as an "invaluable resource" during the investigation and what helped crack this case.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

According to animal control officers, all of the animals rescued were nursed back to help and adopted.

Interestingly, one of the surviving horses was actually a retired thoroughbred race horse and a direct descendant of Secretariat and Seattle Slough.

Deputies want the public to become acquainted with the list of aliases the women used.

Nancy Lee Freeman

• Nancy Frieman
• Nancy Nygaard
• Nan Speed
• Nan Steed

Katherine Joanne Nygaard

• Kathleen Lee
• Kat Frieman
• Lee Freeman
• Joanne Speed
• Joanne Steed
• Joanne Flutterby (used on Facebook)

WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW

Deputies added both women have expired driver's licenses.

And, a civil suit was filed in Ocala for refusal to pay Peterson & Smith Equine $2,737.87.  Using an alias, deputies say Nancy provided a letter saying she could not attend court due to her seven-year-old son's annual brain and spine MRI from a prior diagnosis of Medulloblastoma being scheduled for that day.

Nancy never had a son and was too old to have given birth.

Katherine has a misdemeanor traffic warrant out of Arkansas.