Jerod Mayo: Former Patriots LB discovers missing dog dead at trainer's home

Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Former New England Patriots linebacker Jerod Mayo has found his missing dog after the Rhode Island SPCA discovered his dead body in the home of a trainer.

Knox -- a 5-year-old English Bulldog -- was reported missing by on June 28. The Wrentham Police Department published a post about the missing dog the following day on Facebook.

"The Rhode Island SPCA recovered the deceased body of 'Knox,' the 5-year-old English Bulldog, owned by the Mayo family," the Rhode Island SPCA said in a statement on Sunday.

"The body was found in a residence in the Edgewood section of Cranston, where the dog trainer resided. Knox died while in the custody of the trainer, Amelia Ferreira. Ferreira is being charged by the Cranston Police Department, with one count of obstruction, for concealing evidence relevant to this investigation. Evidence revealed that Ferreira has known the whereabouts of Knox's deceased body for several weeks and intentionally concealed his body from authorities. Cause of death is currently unknown, and additional charges relating to animal cruelty may follow, pending the results of a necropsy."

The dog was originally reported as going missing during a walk. Trainer Amelia Ferreira later said he went missing from a crate in her apartment, according to Boston.com.

Mayo posted to Instagram on Monday after the news of his dog's discovery.

"Unfortunately, the answers we prayed for regarding Knox aren't ones we were ready to face," he wrote. "Knowing what we know now about @offleashk9trainingprov @offleashk9training we mentally explored every outcome possible and the reality is we were right. Knox has passed and his body was found in the home of the Offleash trainer. It's disgusting and inhumane that a company full of 'dog lovers' would hide a family pet in a closet for two months and compulsively lie and send us on a wild goose hunt and our kids on an emotional rollercoaster."

"Staging him running away, him being stolen, even him drowning having us knocking on doors sending us false leads as we searched two states. We've hired scuba teams, private investigators, lawyers and more when they knew they had him in their home in a trash bag tucked away the whole two months. Yeah a trash bag! We raised Knox like our child as you guys can see from our photos and those of you who know us. It hurts to have to accept that our beloved Knox was thought of as trash as they saw our family hurting. Currently all that these people are facing is obstruction. Not animal cruelty or filing false police reports or for plain ole tossing someone's family member in a trash bag and storing it!"

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"From the Mayo family, we want to thank all of the people who spent countless hours looking for Knox. To our social media family, thank you for posting every day. We still have work to do.....we need to bring awareness to this problem so it never happens again."

"This is just getting started."

Mayo, 32, played eight seasons for the Patriots. He was a two-time Pro Bowl selection and an All-Pro. Mayo also won a Super Bowl and was the 2008 Defensive Rookie of the Year. He was also the No. 10 overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft.