A Tuskegee University student arrested on felony charges of obtaining property under false pretense has been extradited to North Carolina.
Fallon Blackwood, 23, a third-year student in the Tuskegee University School of Veterinary Medicine, was supposedly involved in a scam that impacted horse lovers.
Blackwood was taken into custody on the TU campus and booked into the Macon County Jail on Tuesday, April 3. The Tuskegee University Police Department made the arrest based on a felony warrant issued in North Carolina for alleged involvement with horses from that state.
She was extradited to the Martin County Sheriff’s Office in Williamston, N.C. following a hearing in the Macon County Circuit Court on Friday, April 6.
Blackwood is alleged to have scammed horse owners into giving them their horses after they could no longer care for the horses themselves. Blackwood supposedly promised that she would take care of the animals, in some cases at her place near Boaz where she reportedly kept some horses of her own. The pretense was that the horses would have “companions” to keep them company.
Macon County Sheriff Andre’ Brunson told one media outlet, “She was getting the horses and telling the owners they were going to nice pasture land and would happily live out their days. What she was doing was taking the horses to slaughter."
Two victims claimed they gave their horse, valued at $1,500, to Blackwood back in November of 2017.
The victims reported that Blackwood claimed their horses would be taken in as a companion to a horse Blackwood owned.
The victims said they believed their horses were slaughtered after a Facebook group revealed more people were reporting the same thing in their dealings with Blackwood.
“From what I understand, there are many more victims across the south," says Brunson.
"Slaughtered to potentially be made into dog food is what is believed to have happened to some of the horses that landed in Blackwood’s possession. It's just a shame something like this would happen and somebody would be this cruel, if this is what happened."
Tuskegee University released the following statement regarding the case after being notified of the situation with Blackwood.
“The Tuskegee University Police Department immediately executed the warrant in cooperation with ABI agents while Ms. Blackwood was on university property, and transferred her to the Macon County Sheriff’s Department for processing.
“As noted in a previous statement issued by the university on March 7, Tuskegee University remains committed to cooperating fully with law enforcement agencies on any ensuing investigations.