Facebook (Kielee Sonnemann) Kielee Sonnemann.
Kielee Sonnemann is the 18-year-old teenage babysitter who is accused of stabbing and suffocating a Sussex, Wisconsin, family’s pet Chihuahua dog to death with scissors and a plastic grocery bag, according to a criminal complaint obtained by Heavy.
The complaint says that Kielee M. Sonnemann is from Wayne, Wisconsin. She turned 18 in December, so she is charged as an adult with mistreatment of animals, with the use of a dangerous weapon, a felony. The charge is punishable by up to three years in prison if convicted, but the weapon enhancer allows a judge to add another four years on top of that.
The victim said the dog was named Batman and was an 8-year-old Chihuahua, according to the complaint. The complaint says Sonnemann told police, “It’s kind of sounding like I did do it,” and indicated that she lashes out when she gets angry. She admitted being angry at the dog and said that maybe a bunch of little things were adding up and could have caused her to get mad, the complaint says.
The dog’s family was not named in the complaint. The defendant’s full name is Kielee Michelle Sonnemann. The community had joined together in looking for the initially missing dogs, whose picture was posted on the “Lost Dogs of Wisconsin” Facebook page. “Unfortunately we have been notified that Batman was found deceased. Our condolences to his family,” the page wrote.
Be forewarned that the details described below are extremely graphic and disturbing.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Kielee Sonnemann, Whose Bail Was Set at $15,000, Was on the Honor Roll at Hamilton High School, According to Her Facebook Page
Facebook (Kielee Sonnemann)Kielee Sonnemann
According to her Facebook page, Sonnemann “went to Hamilton High,” and lives in Sussex, Wisconsin. Hamilton is located in Sussex. However, the criminal complaint gives an address for her in Wayne, which is a town of about 2,100 people in neighboring Washington County.
She is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, according to the page, which contains two public photos, one showing her posing next to a field of sunflowers.
She made the honor roll as a junior at Hamilton High School during the first semester of the 2022-2023 school year, according to the Hamilton website.
On January 29, Court Commissioner David Herring set Sonnemann’s bail at $15,000 cash, according to Waukesha County Court records. She was still on the Waukesha County Jail list on January 29, however.
Bail conditions were listed as: “Defendant is not to possess any dangerous weapons/firearms. Defendant is not allowed to have any unsupervised contact with any domestic animals. The defendant cannot babysit. Defendant to have no unsupervised contact with any child under the age of 18.”
She appears to have a relative who works as a teacher at a local daycare and who co-owned another childcare facility; Sonnemann appears on that woman’s Facebook page holding a different dog in some photos. “Happy Birthday to my baby, Kielee Sonnemann. Can’t believe you’re 17 now!” the woman wrote in December 2022 along with a photo collage of Sonnemann. She wrote with another post, “Kielee Sonnemann is participating in a Bowl-athon as a fundraiser for her mission trip to Iowa through church. If anyone would like to sponsor her, please let me know.”
Sonnemann’s name also appears on a First Communion list for Saint James Parish in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 2014. Another site lists her as a volleyball player.
2. The Homeowner Told Police He Found His Dog Deceased Under Blankets, With a Plastic Grocery Bag Over the Animal’s Head, the Complaint Says
MugshotKielee Sonnemann
According to the complaint, on January 26 at 1:35 p.m., officers were dispatched to an animal complaint at a home along Elm Avenue in the Village of Sussex, in Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
The complaint says:
The victim told police that he had “found his dog deceased under blankets in his daughter’s room with blood all over the place.” He advised dispatch that the previous night “they had a babysitter, and he believed the babysitter had killed his dog,” the complaint says.
An officer arrived and spoke with the man, who was “very frantic and upset.” He said that his wife and three children were in the home, and the rest of the family went down in the basement.
The dog’s body was found in a room that belonged to the family’s 11-year-old child, the complaint says. The dog was under a camouflage blanket in the southwest corner of the room. The officer pulled back the blanket and saw a black deceased dog. The dog had a plastic bag over his head and “what appeared to be a stab wound on its chest,” the complaint says.
3. The Family Spent All Day Searching for the Missing Dog, Batman, the Complaint Says
FacebookThe missing dog Batman.
The victim said the family believed Batman “had gotten out and ran away the previous night” when the babysitter was watching the youngest child, age four.
The victim saw Batman alive around 6:45 p.m. on a recording from a security camera inside the residence. The only people home were the babysitter, identified as Sonnemann, and the 4-year-old girl, according to the complaint.
When the man’s wife got home around 9 p.m. on January 25, she could not locate Batman. He called Sonnemann multiple times, but she didn’t answer her phone, the complaint says.
The complaint further says:
The 11-year-old had been staying at her grandmother’s house and wasn’t inside the home when the dog was killed, the complaint said. Numerous blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals were on top of Batman, concealing the dog.
The wife said Batman was alive and well when she left.
The family drove around all day looking for Batman and putting posts on social media and called the police to say their dog was missing, according to the complaint.
Members of the community had joined in the search for the missing dog. “Sometimes things just don’t end like we want. Batman was reported missing on 1/25 and I spent alot of time sharing his post on Facebook and trying to track him down. Today we found out that he is deceased and basically murdered,” wrote one woman on Facebook.
4. The 11-Year-Old Girl Observed the Dog’s Legs Sticking Out From the Blankets, the Complaint Says
CCAPKielee Sonnemann court record.
Security camera video showed Batman in the living room with the daughter and babysitter, but later on, the dog is not seen, but the defendant walks down the hallway where the dog was found, the complaint says.
The man said a pair of scissors kept in the bathroom was missing, according to the complaint.
The 11-year-old girl observed the dog’s legs and screamed when she returned home on January 26.
The complaint says :
The dog was positioned on its back with a white plastic grocery bag wrapped around its head and a puncture wound to its right side. Some of the fur was pulled away from the skin.
Police found a pair of small scissors with blood on them and possibly hair and fur.
5. Kielee Sonnemann Told Police She Lashes Out When She Gets Angry, the Complaint Says
Facebook (Kielee Sonnemann)Kielee Sonnemann.
According to the complaint, when officers went to speak with Sonnemann, she initially said she painted the girl’s nails and tried to cut her hair, but detectives later confirmed this was a false statement.
At first, the complaint says, she claimed she tried to help find the dog. There was footage of the girl pushing the dog in a stroller, the complaint says.
She denied getting a bag from the kitchen. Then, according to the complaint, Sonnemann said she “just wanted the dog to leave her alone because he was biting her.”
Sonnemann said she asked the dog to stop and kind of shooed him away and then put him in a bedroom, the complaint says.
She is accused of telling authorities that “there was a lot of drama going on,” the complaint says, adding that she said when she gets angry, she lashes out.
“It seems like it,” she told the detective when asked if she lashed out at the dog, the complaint says.
She said she does not remember doing anything but when she gets mad and lashes out “everything goes blank, and she does not remember,” the complaint says.
Sonnemann said she remembered hitting the dog a couple of times to get him away from her but doesn’t remember stabbing the dog, the complaint says.
Sonnemann said she doesn’t remember putting a bag over the dog’s head but admitted it was possible she could have harmed the dog, but she did not remember it, according to the complaint. She said the girl she was babysitting probably saw her kicking the dog, according to the complaint.
READ NEXT: Wisconsin University Chancellor Accused of Starring in Online Porn Videos