A 14-year-old girl watched her father hold a 2-month-old kitten named Luna under running water.
Now she's the reason he's in handcuffs.
She called 911 herself – and what detectives found buried in the backyard will turn your stomach.
A Year of Killings Investigators Dug Out of the Ground
David Charette Jr., 48, of Pine Manor, Florida, was arrested August 6 and charged with aggravated animal cruelty after Lee County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to his home.
“A Fort Myers man was arrested for aggravated animal cruelty after killing two cats and injuring a third,” the Fort Myers Police reported. “Deputies responded to a home in Pine Manor after receiving a report that a man was attempting to drown and strike a two-month-old kitten named Luna.”
His daughter had called 911 after watching him strike Luna with a nail polish bottle – and after he put her in a clothes dryer the previous Saturday.
But the real horror started when detectives kept asking questions.
Charette had already killed two other kittens in the past year – both buried in the backyard.
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In June, he smothered a 1-month-old kitten with a bleach-soaked rag.
Before that, he killed a 3-month-old kitten with a blow dryer.
Investigators found one set of remains during a search of the property.
Charette stood outside his home while deputies questioned him and insisted he had done nothing wrong.
"The cat is in perfectly healthy condition," he told them. "I have to give the cat a bath because it soils itself in the cage."
His daughter told a completely different story.
The Sheriff Said Out Loud What Everyone Was Thinking
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno didn't use careful language.
"A daughter says that when she acts up or when she's in trouble, her father kills her kittens," Marceno told CBS affiliate WINK. "This is sickening to me."
It's sickening to everyone.
The family never reported the earlier killings because they feared retaliation.
Luna survived. She's recovering at a local animal hospital.
Charette is sitting in the Lee County jail on $100,000 bail.
Florida Has the Law to Put This Man Away
Here's what most coverage won't tell you: Florida passed Dexter's Law in May 2025, and it was built for exactly this kind of case.
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The law is named after a dog who was killed shortly after being adopted from a shelter – a case that finally pushed Florida lawmakers to act.
Dexter's Law applies a 1.25 sentencing multiplier to aggravated animal cruelty convictions involving companion animals – cats and dogs – effective July 1, 2025.
That multiplier increases the points calculated under Florida's Criminal Punishment Code, making state prison time significantly more likely than under the old law.
There's more.
Starting January 1, 2026, Florida launched a statewide animal abuse offender registry maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Everyone convicted of aggravated animal cruelty goes on that list, publicly searchable, regardless of whether the court withheld adjudication.
If Charette is convicted, his name lives on that registry permanently – and the sentencing multiplier means the judge has real firepower to send him to prison instead of handing him probation.
DeSantis signed additional legislation in May 2026 creating new felony offenses for adults who use or encourage minors to participate in acts of aggravated animal cruelty.
Charette's alleged conduct – killing kittens in front of his own child as punishment – sits squarely in that territory.
What This Case Actually Is
The FBI has documented for decades that animal cruelty is one of the earliest and most reliable markers for violence against people.
Their criminal profilers have said it plainly: murderers very often start by killing and torturing animals.
School shooters. Domestic abusers. Serial killers.
The pattern repeats so consistently that the FBI now tracks animal cruelty convictions specifically to identify people before they escalate.
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The mechanism is exactly what Charette allegedly used it for – to intimidate, to punish, to establish that he controls life and death inside that house.
A man who kills kittens in front of his teenage daughter isn't punishing a child.
He's telling her what happens to things she loves when she steps out of line.
That's not a discipline problem. That's a threat.
His daughter understood that better than anyone. She called 911 anyway.
This man killed a kitten in June, buried it in the backyard, and went about his life while she said nothing – because she knew what speaking up would cost.
Florida's laws are finally strong enough to hold men like this accountable.
The question is how many homes in this country have a backyard nobody's dug up yet.
Sources:
- Michael Sinkewicz, "Florida man allegedly kills family's kittens in front of teenage daughter as form of punishment," Fox News, August 8, 2026.
- "Florida man used kitten killings to punish teen daughter, sheriff says," WINK News, August 7, 2026.
- "Florida Man Jailed For Allegedly Killing Cats With Blow Dryer and Rag Soaked in Bleach," TMZ, August 8, 2026.
- "Dexter's Law: Florida's New Animal Cruelty Penalties and Public Registry," Brancato Law Firm, May 20, 2026.
- "Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Legislation Strengthening Animal Welfare Protections," Florida Governor's Office, May 12, 2026.
