MERCER COUNTY, OH (WLIO) - It reads like a gruesome horror book but the complaint filed in the United States District Court of Western Michigan led federal authorities to a small western Ohio community last week.
25-year-old Lucas VanWoert has been arrested on several charges involving the heinous abuse of several dogs. VanWoert lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan, until several months ago, when he moved to rural Mercer County.
Homeland Security executed a search warrant on September 27, 2022, at VanWoert's home after an investigation in Michigan ended in a criminal complaint that he is believed to have created "animal crushing" videos for purposes of distribution in November of 2020.
Those videos are believed to have been filmed in a tractor-trailer cab at a rest stop in Michigan. After an investigation in Australia of a man with similar charges, VanWoert is believed to be the man in multiple "animal crushing" videos shared between the two men.
The term “animal crushing” means actual conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury.
Investigators made this determination because of a "star-shaped" tattoo on his arm, other similar body resemblances, and a hunting knife seen in the video. It was also stated in the complaint that the preliminary examination at his home disclosed additional "animal crushing" videos.
VanWoert also admitted to performing multiple acts, too gruesome to mention, to a dog in Michigan. Authorities did find 3 live dogs in poor health and a 4th dog buried in the backyard at his Mercer County home.
He was arrested on September 28, 2022, and has had his initial appearance in federal court in Toledo, charged with animal cruelty and obscenity. He faces additional charges in the criminal complaint in the Western District of Michigan District Court.
We will bring you more on this story as it unfolds.
