FL Woman Drowned Dog At Airport After Boarding Problem: Police

ORLANDO, FL — A Clermont woman was arrested Tuesday after drowning her dog at Orlando International Airport in December when she wasn’t allowed to board with him, according to an arrest affidavit.

Alison Lawrence, 58, was charged with aggravated animal abuse, a third-degree felony.

When she wasn’t allowed to board her Latam Airlines flight to Bogota, Columbia, with her dog on Dec. 16 because of “improper paperwork … Lawrence is believed to have taken extreme and traffic action by killing the dog,” according to the affidavit from the Orlando Police Department.

The dead dog, Tywinn, a 9-year-old miniature schnauzer, and dog-related items — including a companion vest, rabies tag and collar — were found in a garbage can in an airport bathroom handicapped stall. They were found by an employee cleaning the bathroom.

A necropsy showed the animal died from being submerged in water.

“This act was intentional and resulted in a cruel and unnecessary death of the animal,” the affidavit said.

When the employee initially approached the bathroom stall, she found the suspect, later identified as Lawrence, cleaning up water and dog food from the floor.

The worker left for “a cleanup emergency at another location” before returning to the handicapped stall about 20 minutes later, the affidavit said. When she returned, she saw Lawrence leaving the stall and found Tywinn in the garbage.

Lawrence boarded her flight to Columbia and had connecting flights booked to Quito, Ecuador, and then to Cuenca, Ecuador.

Surveillance footage showed her walking through the airport with Tywinn before his death.