Jenelle Evans Could Still Be Charged After Police In North Carolina Said Story About Dog’s Killing Was A Hoax

Police in North Carolina said Jenelle Evans’ tale about her husband killing the family dog was a hoax meant to drum up attention, and the reality television star could now face charges for it.

This week, the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina released a statement saying that Jenelle and husband David Eason would not be facing charges for animal cruelty as Jenelle had told police that she fabricated the story “for publicity.” As People magazine noted, police said that Jenelle’s story had been inconsistent and that she finally admitted it was filed for attention.

“Jenelle advised that ‘She don’t know where the dog is.’ She also advised that ‘I don’t know if she was shot or killed or not,’ ” the police said in a statement. “Jenelle stated that the reason she filed the animal cruelty report was for the publicity and because she did not know where her dog was.”

Though the couple will not face charges for animal cruelty, the door appears to be open for other charges related to the dog-killing hoax. As WWAY reported, police said that the standards for filing charges related to a false police report were not met, but District Attorney Jon David said that the investigation was still ongoing.

“Prosecutors from my office will be meeting with the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office next week to review the evidence,” David told the news outlet in a text message. “I am (unable) to forecast what decisions will be made at that juncture.”

Jenelle Evans had already slammed the claim that the report of David killing the family dog was a PR stunt. The allegation led to the couple’s children being taken away, though they were returned into their custody weeks later after a series of custody hearings. It was costly to Jenelle’s career as well, as she was fired from Teen Mom 2 after the incident.

Jenelle said in an interview with The Hollywood Gossip that she had never actually filed a report with police over the incident, but got a voicemail from police asking her to call them about the “dog incident.”

#TeenMom's Jenelle Evans mourned her dog Nugget after claiming her husband David "killed" her. As a result, she lost her job and temporarily lost custody of her kids. Now, police say she made it all up for publicity. https://t.co/90czaFLNxu pic.twitter.com/5YVxr8Ogdz

— E! News (@enews) July 11, 2019

Jenelle said that when she called back, the chief of police asked her point blank if the story about David killing the family dog for biting their daughter was a publicity stunt. Jenelle insisted that the story was true, not a publicity stunt, but that she didn’t know what happened to the dog.

Jenelle Evans then turned it back around on police, saying that she thinks “they are doing this for their own publicity.”