JAY, Okla. — An Afton woman is free on $10,000 bail after she allegedly locked up her estranged husband’s dog in a crate and threw the live animal in Grand Lake, where it drowned.
Kyleigh Lain Estes, 33, is charged with animal cruelty. Online court records show she is due back in court on July 11.
Two Grand River Dam Authority Police officers located the dog’s carcass at Isles End Cove on May 25 inside a kennel. The kennel had the name “Nate” on it.
Estes confessed to the officers she was going through a divorce and was “overwhelmed,” according to officials.
She told police Nate belonged to her estranged husband. Still, his behavior “was strange, and she believed he was at his end-of-life stage,” so she put the five-year-old dog in his kennel, waited until the dog calmed down, brought him to the nearby dock, and tossed him into the lake while he was in the kennel.
AFFIDAVIT FOR ISSUANCE OF ARREST WARRANT, CF-25-106
After tossing him into the lake, Estes said she returned to her residence.
She told police, “…her acts were not in retaliation to the ongoing divorce proceedings.”
According to the police affidavit, police noticed blood on the bottom plastic floor of the kennel, and the dog appeared to have been in the water for quite some time.
A resident was returning to his dock, and when he pulled into the boat slip, a kennel was observed slightly under the pier.
Police removed the kennel, holding the deceased brown dog, from the lake.
Police noted that Estes has multiple dogs living at her residence. She claimed Nate was an older dog who urinated all over the house and tore things up. She became uncomfortable leaving the dogs alone because Nate had become “aggressive.”
Estes said putting Nate in the kennel would prevent him from urinating everywhere.
Randall Estes told police that he had given the five-year-old dog to his estranged wife as a gift and that it was not known to be “aggressive.” He said if the dog urinated in the house it’s because it wasn’t trained properly.
Estes and her estranged husband, Randall, filed for divorce on April 1. Before their separation, Estes filed for a protective order against her estranged husband, which was dismissed. Previously, in 2022, Estes filed a protective order against Randall Estes, but the court dismissed the action because she failed to attend the hearing.
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