Sarasota woman, dad arrested after Snapchat video of raccoon being burned alive goes viral
A Sarasota father and daughter have been been arrested after a Snapchat video showing a raccoon being burned alive in a dumpster went viral.
Alicia Kincheloe, 30, and her father Roddy Kincheloe, 63, were each charged with aggravated animal cruelty. They were booked into the Sarasota County jail.
The Sarasota sheriff’s office Agricultural Unit learned of the Snapchat videos on Aug. 11.
The raccoon was found in a dumpster in the 5700 block of Sarah Avenue in Sarasota.
In the first Snapchat video, Alicia Kincheloe narrates as she walks up to the dumpster where she said that she and a coworker had heard the raccoon rustling the night before as they were taking the taking the trash out at the end of their shifts. The video zooms in on the raccoon who was looking up at her, not acting aggressively.
She claims in the video that raccoon had been “running at people and trying to attack people,” although there is no evidence of that in the videos. Kincheloe adds that the raccoon likely has rabies.
The next Snapchat video shows her father hosing down the smoking dumpster.
“Some people say throw an apple with bleach in there,” she said over the sound of the hose. “We just toasted his (expletive), who’s hungry?” she said as the camera zooms into the dumpster where the charred remains of the raccoon can be seen.”
The video then zooms in on the charred remains of the young raccoon.
The sheriff’s office released all of the Snapchat videos to local media, but the Bradenton Herald has edited out some of the graphic footage.
Deputies interviewed Alicia Kincheloe on Aug. 12, and she admitted to making the Snapchat videos with her phone, according to a probable cause affidavit. But she claimed that she had found the dumpster smoldering when she came back from lunch so they grabbed an empty gas can, filled it with water and poured it into the dumpster.
The dumpster then flared up, she claimed, so her father grabbed a hose to put out the fire. She added that her father had thrown a cigarette into the dumpster before they went to lunch.
Alicia Kincheloe met deputies at the business location, and she pulled the gas can from under the driver’s seat, explaining them that she kept it there in case her radiator needs water.
However, when deputies opened the gas tank, “I could immediately smell a strong odor of gasoline,” Deputy George Yock stated in the report. A preliminary burn test showed it was a flammable liquid.
Her father told deputies a similar account of what happened.
Video surveillance obtained by deputies, however, told a different story.
In the video, the father and daughter are seen by her food truck, then walking up to the dumpster and jumping back, deputies said. Another woman was shown arriving in her truck later in the video.
That surveillance video shows Alicia Kincheloe using pitchfork to reach into the dumpster, pluck the dead raccoon out, and her walking away with it.
Deputies interviewed the other woman, who told them she had seen Alicia Kincheloe’s Snapchat videos and had called to ask her about it. She was told they would talk about it later.
Alicia Kincheloe later told the woman that she and her father had seen the dumpster before they went to lunch, and her father stabbed the raccoon with a pitchfork. When they returned from lunch, the raccoon was still alive.
Kincheloe’s father told her to grab the gasoline can from the truck, so she poured the gas on the still alive raccoon, and he lit the dumpster on fire, the woman told deputies.
Later, father and daughter used the hose to put out the fire and took the dead raccoon out in order to avoid law enforcement finding it, the deputy’s report said.
The maximum punishment for aggravated animal cruelty is up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $10,000.
This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 1:17 PM.
