Pet Cemetery Exhumed: What the Dead Will Reveal

[Warning: Discretion Advised – Disturbing Images]

Investigators digging at Miranda’s Rescue already know they’ll find dead animals.

Shannon Miranda told the North Coast Journal he buries every animal that dies at his rescue on the property rather than send it to a landfill. He’s been operating for 31 years. By his own account, the field on Sandy Prairie Road is a burial ground — a dignified one, he says, for animals that died in his care.

That’s what makes what investigators are doing this week so methodical, and so significant.

Digging resumed just after 8 a.m. this morning at Miranda’s Rescue in Fortuna, continuing in the same area where the operation began Tuesday. According to sources, the location is the same area of the property where Jennifer Raymond and Jenna Moore say they pulled eight dead dogs from a hole in late April — the same dogs Miranda told the North Coast Journal he had shot humanely, each one a genuine emergency, each death justified.

But sources tell Redheaded Blackbelt that investigators have now recovered several additional dogs from that hole in various states of decomposition — suggesting the animals did not all die at the same time. And critically, investigators are not just digging. They are sifting.

Specialized metal detectors are being used to sweep the disturbed earth, in what sources describe as a systematic effort to locate microchips. Several animals transferred from shelters to Miranda’s Rescue were reportedly microchipped. Those chips — roughly the size of a grain of rice — survive decomposition and carry identifying data. Each chip recovered is potentially a data point in a fraud case.

What they’re looking for — and why it matters

Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal laid out the core numbers at a press briefing Tuesday afternoon on Sandy Prairie Road: since January 2025, Miranda’s Rescue took in 918 animals, the investigation has discovered. One hundred and sixteen were recorded as adopted. Seventy-one were on the property when the first search warrant was executed May 1. That leaves 731 unaccounted for by HCSO’s estimated.

But the investigation is not simply about counting bodies. It is about what those bodies can prove.

Miranda has given investigators a road map of sorts — and a built-in defense. By acknowledging that he shoots animals himself when veterinarians are unavailable, and that he buries them all on the property, he has ensured that finding dead dogs in the ground at Miranda’s Rescue will not, by itself, be enough. The question investigators must answer is more specific: were these animals killed lawfully — humanely, out of genuine necessity — or were they killed to clear space for the next paying transfer?

That distinction is the difference between a man running an overwhelmed rescue and a man running a fraud.

The microchip data is key to making that case. If investigators can match chips to shelter records, they can reconstruct a timeline — when a dog arrived, what condition it was in at intake, how it was described by the shelter that sent it. Then they can compare that against Miranda’s account of why it had to be killed. A dog described by Oakland Animal Services as calm, nonreactive, and ready for a playgroup — like Zora, the Cane Corso mix whose body was among those Moore and Raymond recovered — tells a different story than Miranda’s account of an animal that was dangerously aggressive and left him no choice.

On April 25, Miranda texted Oakland Animal Services a photo of Zora on a leash with the message “Zora adopted.” Her body was in the hole the next day. She had arrived from Oakland less than a month before after animal advocates raised money for her placement at Miranda’s Rescue.

What the broader investigation is targeting

The excavation is one piece of a much larger operation. The search warrant authorized investigators to seize financial records, adoption records, and business records — the paper and digital trail of an operation that, according to the warrant affidavit, generated an estimated $510,000 in shelter transfer fees in the past year alone. Investigators have been working that angle since the first warrant was executed May 1, interviewing dozens of shelters across California and beyond and documenting the financial architecture of what they allege was a systematic fraud.

Honsal confirmed Tuesday that the investigation is examining potential animal cruelty and fraud violations, with charging decisions to be made by the District Attorney, the California Attorney General, or the U.S. Attorney once investigators determine if there is sufficient evidence. The fraud case depends heavily on documentation: text messages saying dogs were adopted when they were dead, financial records showing payment received to find homes or care indefinitely for animals that were allegedly killed, adoption paperwork that doesn’t match what the chips in the ground will tell investigators.

Two federal statutes are central to why the FBI and USDA are on scene alongside state investigators.

The Animal Welfare Act, enforced by the USDA, sets minimum standards of care for animals in commercial settings — including those involved in interstate transport and commerce. Miranda’s Rescue was receiving dogs transported across state lines from shelters across California and, according to Honsal, at least one shelter in Hawaii. If those transfers involved payment and Miranda failed to provide the care those payments were meant to cover, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service — whose investigators are on scene — has jurisdiction to pursue violations. Penalties under the Animal Welfare Act can include civil fines and criminal prosecution.

The CRUSH Act started as a law targeting videos of animal cruelty but was expanded in 2019 to cover the act itself — making it a federal crime to intentionally kill or seriously injure an animal in a way that touches interstate commerce. Because Miranda’s Rescue was accepting dogs shipped from shelters across California and beyond, the interstate commerce hook is already built in. If investigators determine animals were intentionally killed under those circumstances, the killing itself — not just any photos or videos of it — could carry federal exposure. The FBI is on scene and Honsal said Tuesday that investigators are examining the statute as part of the case, though he did not specify how it applies to what they’ve found so far.

Together the two federal statutes significantly expand the legal exposure beyond California’s animal cruelty and fraud statutes — and explain why the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California is also consulting on the case.

What Wednesday looks like

Tuesday evening, after the initial digging, a bulldozer and a skid steer moved across large sections of the property, removing grass and topsoil from broad swaths of ground in apparent prep for additional ground-penetrating radar scanning, working until around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday night. The ground-penetrating radar used Tuesday identified multiple areas of interest, not all of those have been excavated as of Wednesday afternoon.

Law enforcement patrolled overnight, the cordoned area marked with caution tape.

Digging resumed Wednesday morning just after 8 a.m. Honsal said Tuesday that X-ray equipment would be brought in to help determine cause of death in the field before remains are transported. A refrigerated truck on site is holding what has been recovered so far as evidence. Forensic veterinarians are conducting field autopsies on recovered animals as they are unearthed.

Miranda has said investigators will find dead animals because he buried them there. What he could not control is what the chips inside them will say about when they arrived, what they were like when they got there, and how long they survived after Miranda accepted payment for their care.

That is what investigators are sifting for, one detector sweep at a time.

---

Shannon Miranda has not been charged with any crime. As with anyone under investigation, Miranda is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office tip line at (707) 268-2539 or submit anonymously at [email protected].

Earlier:

• Search Warrant Served at Miranda’s Rescue in Fortuna Amid Animal Abuse and Fraud Investigation
• Paid to Save Them, Accused of Killing Them: The Investigation Into Miranda’s Rescue
• HCSO: Miranda’s Rescue Investigation Remains a Priority
• Miranda’s Rescue Case Sparks Outcry at Supes Meeting
• HCSO Executes New Search Warrant at Miranda’s Rescue, Brings Heavy Equipment to Property
• 731 Animals Unaccounted For: Investigators Dig at Miranda’s Rescue as Remains Recovered