Man High On Bath Salts Does Something With a Pygmy Goat?!!!

The Charleston Gazette (West Virginia) reports this morning on the Alum Creek area-man, who while "high on bath salts" killed his neighbor's pygmy goat.  That's when the story gets really strange.  This is reporter Gary Harki's account:

Police say an Alum Creek man high on bath salts killed his neighbor's pygmy goat and that neighbors found him in his bedroom, dressed in a bra and panties, next to the dead animal, said Lt. Bryan Stover of the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department.  Mark Thompson, 19, (pic) of Greenview Road, is charged with animal cruelty after police got a call from a woman who said he stole her goat at about 3:15 a.m. Monday, Stover said.

Lisa Powers said she bought the goat on Friday as a gift to her 4-year-old grandson. They named the male goat Bailey after a female character on the Disney Channel television show 'The Suite Life on Deck.' 'The baby just loved him,' she said.

Powers' nephew, Joshua Pollis, got a call from a neighbor early Monday morning, she said.

'They told him that my goat was wandering around in Mark's house and he'd better come and get it,' she said. 'They called my nephew because he'd been there before.'

Pollis and two women walked into Thompson's house looking for the goat, according to the criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court.  The three entered the house and made their way to Thompson's bedroom door when Thompson spoke to them, Powers said.

'He told them, 'Don't come in, I'm naked,''Powers said. 'But they opened the door and he was standing there with his pants down. He had on women's clothing and the goat was dead and there was blood everywhere. It was just a scene.' 

[Thompson fled the scene]
Police got a search warrant for the house, and searched the woods for Thompson. They found him several hours later.  Thompson allegedly told police he was on bath salts for about three days.

When police entered the house they found fresh blood near the front door of the bedroom and in Thompson's bedroom to the right of the front door. Inside the bedroom police found the small gray and white goat wearing a pink collar lying dead on the floor, blood coming from its neck, according to the complaint. There was a pornographic magazine photo laying a few feet from the goat, the complaint states.'We know the animal had at least one stab wound,' said Cpl. Sean Snuffer, a detective with the Sheriff's Department. 'They are also searching for signs of sexual trauma.'

Police took the dead animal to a veterinarian for a necropsy, he said.  Police are continuing their investigation. Thompson was arraigned Monday afternoon and taken into custody by Adult Protective Services.

Snuffer said the people in the community where Thompson lives told police they have been concerned about his mental health [.]"
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I did not know until yesterday that folks "do" bath salts.  Must be a pretty strange "high" if this story is any indication.  What's remarkable to me was that this dude was doing all these things but when they broke in on him he was so modest he was concerned that he was going to be caught with his pants down. 

Years ago when I first began to work with victims of child sex abuse I'd occasionally come across stories as bizarre and almost unbelievable as this one.  My reaction was frankly disbelief.  And yet, in some situations victims would provide tantalizing evidence--letters mainly, although in one occasion a recorded confrontation between the victims and the adult perpetrators that astonished me.  In several occasions photos of absolutely disgusting and perverse acts surfaced, although nothing on this scale. 

I sympathize with the social workers, law enforcement and others who deal with these things.  I got pretty crazy representing victims arising out of these bizarre and perverse childhoods--oh, and I didn't help myself very much.  You need a lot of support to keep normal, normal.  In fact, I think "normal" is an underrated value.