Authorities in Texas received a shocking call from an 11-year-old who claimed that his mother was “burning” their family dogs. The child called 911 on May 17 in hopes of receiving help with what was going on. Rusk County sheriff’s deputies shared a post on Facebook detailing the accident and its chilling details.
911 received a call at 1 p.m. in the afternoon from Henderson, which is 140 miles from Dallas, Texas. Veronica Loredo, who is reported to be 33 years old, was brought into custody after the police received a call on Saturday afternoon. The call made by Lorendo’s son revealed that the woman believed her son “was the devil.”
While the authorities were on their way after responding to the first call, they received a second call from an address nearby. The callers described how a woman had shown up at their doorsteps with bloodied hands and was claiming that her parents had been murdered.
Upon arrival, deputies found a hysterical woman driving a car that contained her four children. The children’s ages reportedly ranged from 1 to 11. When the authorities carried out further investigation, they found burned canine remains in front of Lorendo’s house. The fire was still actively burning when the authorities discovered it.
USA TODAY was able to obtain an affidavit that revealed that the authorities met with the woman’s parents at the home. While they were in the process of questioning the parents, Lorendo drove up to the house in a car with her four children.
“Help, help, help me, someone is trying to kill me,” is what the 33-year-old screamed after rolling the window down. Veronica’s parents rushed to get the children out of the car when the car initially drove up to their house. A deputy who was present at the scene described the Texas mother’s hysterical behavior in the affidavit.
The deputy noted that the mother of four showed signs of “paranoia,” was “sweating profusely,” and had “abnormally fast breathing” when she arrived at the scene. When the deputy was trying to calm her down, Lorendo admitted to killing her family dogs. She also added how she took the lives of the dogs in front of her kids.
A Texas woman, Veronica Loredo, was arrested after her 11-year-old son called 911, reporting she burned the family dogs and called him “the devil.” Deputies found Loredo with 4 children and dog remains in a fire. She faces multiple animal cruelty and child endangerment charges. pic.twitter.com/jOp9xnFdrw
— NTC Feed (@NTC_Feed) May 20, 2025
Lorendo was immediately detained, and she was charged with two counts of cruelty to non-livestock animals and four counts of child endangerment. She is currently being held at the Rusk County Jail. It was also revealed that she has been booked into the county jail on a $400,000 bond.
Johnwayne Valdez, who serves as the Rusk County Sheriff, shared that the woman was scheduled to soon undergo a mental evaluation, “but as of yet, she has not.” Valdez also revealed that the Child Protective Services was investigating the situation following the incident.
