The body of a Las Vegas equine veterinarian missing since early April was found Friday at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, authorities confirmed Monday.
The National Park Service said in a statement that a body was discovered Friday near the Boulder Islands within Lake Mead. The body was recovered and identified the next day by the Clark County coroner’s office as veterinarian Shawn Frehner, 56, of Las Vegas.
Authorities did not provide a cause or manner of death for Frehner, who was reported missing April 6. Frehner was identified using dental records. No further details were given.
The National Park Service had been leading a multiagency search for Frehner. The search was being conducted with the Nevada Department of Wildlife and volunteers from Las Vegas-based Red Rock Search and Rescue.
A missing persons report released by the Metropolitan Police on April 10 stated that Frehner left behind his wallet, keys and a cellphone inside his unoccupied truck found at the Hemenway Harbor at Lake Mead.
Frehner’s father, Rex Frehner, said his son did not have a history of medical or mental health conditions and “has never made any threats to hurt himself or anyone else,” according to the missing persons report. Rex Frehner said he believed his son owned a gun, but the father was unsure whether he would have taken it with him to the lake.
Rex Frehner and other relatives did not respond Monday to requests for comment.
Days before the search for Shawn Frehner, a criminal complaint was filed by Pahrump resident Shawna Gonzalez, who alleged he had mistreated her horse. Nye County Sheriff Joe McGill confirmed to the Pahrump Valley Times that the Nye County Sheriff’s Office had received Gonzalez’s complaint of felony animal abuse and was investigating.
Gonzalez said in a text message to the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Monday that she was sorry to hear of Shawn Frehner’s death.
“I had no idea this would happen,” Gonzalez said. “But I was not the one bullying. I am not sorry for standing up for my horse. I am their voice and will continue to be.”
Video circulates on social media
In the days after the incident, Gonzalez shared a social media post about her complaint, including video, which was later recirculated by animal rights groups showing a man purported to be Shawn Frehner interacting with her horse named Big Red and at one point kicking it in the jaw when it was on the ground.
Those posts shared by Gonzalez include what purports to be a lengthy apology and explanation by Shawn Frehner of what happened.
In Shawn Frehner’s telling of events, he described Big Red as a wild horse that was dangerously aggressive and unresponsive to sedatives he had administered to prepare him for gelding.
He said the horse had fallen after the sedatives began to take effect in a way that was affecting its breathing, and he had reached out with his foot to brush its face to startle it back into awareness, but the horse turned its head and he ended up kicking it in the chin.
“I did not blatantly haul off and kick this horse, as it appears in the video,” Shawn Frehner wrote, according to a screenshot of the post. “That was not my intention at all. It was done simply to get the Horse in a better position so that he could breathe and get up and move, so I could again try to anesthetize.”
Since the video was posted, the personal Facebook page belonging to Shawn Frehner, as well as his veterinarian business page, had been flooded with comments accusing him of animal abuse. Others stated that he should have had his veterinary license revoked because of the video.
Rush to judgment?
Eric Rose, a partner of the Pasadena, California-based strategic communications firm Englander Knabe &Allen, said that while video of the incident is “unsettling,” many may have rushed to judgment before authorities could thoroughly investigate, leading to Shawn Frehner being “engulfed in a social media firestorm.“
“In the days following a criminal complaint and the release of a disturbing video shared on Facebook, it is clear that Dr. Frehner became the target of intense scrutiny and widespread condemnation,” Rose wrote in an email. “The court of public opinion, fueled by viral posts and amplified by animal rights activists, not surprisingly, moved faster than the formal investigation.”
Gonzalez said that in addition to reporting to law enforcement, she reported Shawn Frehner to the Nevada State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. Jennifer Pedigo, executive director of the agency, has declined to comment on a pending investigation.
But a complaint was filed against Shawn Frehner in 2016 that was settled in May of the following year, according to online records.
Shawn Frehner was placed into a one-year probationary period after the board found that he had failed to maintain and computerize patient records, stemming from an incident where he also dispensed prescription medication to animal owners in unlabeled plastic bags, according to a document outlining the veterinarian board’s findings. It’s the only mention of disciplinary action on a digital overview of his profile, which said he initially received his veterinarian license in 1998. His license was set to expire June 30, according to online records. No other complaints are listed on his file.
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