Melissa Wolke, Kentucky woman sentenced 20 years jail after siccing her fighting pit bull dog to kill Donald Abner at her Conway home.
‘I went redneck on him…’ A Kentucky woman has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for murder after commanding her fighting pit bull to maul a man as she sat on top of him and attacked him.
Melissa Wolke, 40, plead guilty to the murder of 55-year-old car repairman Donald Abner with who she lived with in Conway, Kentucky, at the time of the man’s mauling.
The Rockcastle Circuit Court Clerk confirmed with LEX 18 that Wolke accepted a guilty plea to murder in exchange for 20 years in prison.
Police were called at around 3am on January 10, 2020, by a neighbor who heard fighting and arrived to find Wolke on top of Abner, beating him as her pit bull bit his head and face.
The neighbor told police they they heard her telling the dog: ‘Good boy, get him’.
‘I went redneck on him’
State troopers said when they arrived to the house in Rockcastle County, they were forced to shoot the dog dead.
During police questioning, the woman broke down, repeatedly saying: ‘Oh my God, I went redneck on him’.
Coroners who conducted an autopsy on Abner found that he died at the scene from asphyxiation. He also had a broken bone in his neck and bite marks on his face and head.
Kentucky State Police Detective Ryan Loudermilk testified in court that a neighbor of Wolke said he heard party sounds a few hours before the attack.
He also said he heard gunshots in the weeks before but did not know what was being shot.
The neighbor said he recorded the attack on his phone but deleted the video because it made him ‘sick to watch’ – officers were unable to recover the footage.
‘She appeared to have blood on her hands and feet and had a large clump of hair in her hands that was consistent with the victim’s hair,’ police said in a report at the time.
Alcohol abuse
The dog had bitten the man several times in the face and the head, Trooper Scottie Pennington told WKYT.
He said they were left with no option but to shoot the dog since Wolke would not tell it to back down.
According to Wolke, Abner was staying at the house for about three months before the incident. Investigators said Wolke told them the two had been good friends for 20 years without showing any anger during an interview.
She claimed Abner didn’t have a job or a car, and she wasn’t sure how he planned to stay with Wolke.
Officials said Wolke told them the dog’s name was Denali and that he was a former fighting dog but friendly and obedient while she owned him.
The court heard that Wolke had a history of alcohol abuse and she attempted to give it up for some time. She told the court she had warned the victim she was capable of blacking out when drinking.
When investigators searched the house after the attack they found no signs of fighting but only an empty liquor bottle.
