Marinna Rollins, Dog Killer: What Drives People To Animal Cruelty?

Army vet Marinna Rollins and boyfriend Jerren Heng are dog killers. On April 17 they decided to take Rollins’ pit bull, named Camboui, to a secluded place in the woods, secure him to a tree with his leash, and fire 10 bullets into his head. Marinna shot five times before giving the gun to Heng, who said he wanted in on the action and proceeded to shoot five more bullets into Camboui, as reported by ABC 11.

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Once Jerren finished, Rollins picked up and moved the dead canine to a hollow in the ground for burial, covered Camboui’s body with a sheet, and said, “It’s been real. I love you, you’re my puppy, you’re a good puppy, but…”

After her words of goodbye, Marinna and Heng reportedly situated the corpse to their liking before leaving the area.

The pair documented the heinous act by taking pictures and recording a video, which is available to watch on Facebook (click link).

Adding a peculiar twist to this story is the fact that before Marinna and Heng murdered the dog that had helped her through the scourge of PTSD, the former U.S. soldier put a warning of sorts on her Facebook page.

“Police said that before shooting her dog, Rollins posted a photo of her dog on her Facebook page along with text that she ‘was sad that her dog had to go to a happier place.'”

Marinna Rollins and Jerren Heng are currently incapacitated at Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. If found guilty, they’ll be charged with the felony of animal cruelty and conspiracy.

There is no doubt a lot of people asking themselves one simple question regarding this horrific occurrence: Why?

Why would a person kill a helpless dog, the same dog that reportedly helped Rollins through a very difficult time in her life? What could possibly prompt someone to do something so out of the ordinary?

Cruelty to and murder of animals by humans is nothing new, unfortunately. It’s a known fact that many of the most notorious serial killers first experienced the thrill of ending a life by torturing and killing animals before graduating to unleashing their dark fantasies onto their fellow man.

According to psychotherapist Dawn Drucker, who wrote a piece for PETA Prime, torturing and killing animals is a sociopathic behavior. Animal abuse and murder are driven by lack of empathy mixed with the desire for dominance and supremacy.

Drucker wrote that some of the animal abusers she’s treated told her that after hurting or killing an animal, they experienced a feeling of euphoria, and it’s very possible they may feel the need to seek this feeling again by targeting another animal or maybe a human. It’s their chase of this “high” that makes these kinds of people so dangerous.

According to Canadians for Animal Welfare Reform (CFAWR), “animal cruelty is now recognized as signature pathology,” meaning it’s its own disease. The two main types are active cruelty and passive cruelty. When Marinna Rollins and her boyfriend shot her pet pit bull to death, they were engaging in active cruelty because they wanted to cause the dog pain and death, rather than neglecting and/or slowly starving him to death, which is considered passive cruelty. Puppy mills and animal hoarding are also examples of passive animal cruelty.

As far as adulthood animal cruelty, in the 1980s a pair of investigators were able to find four reasons why adults, such as Rollins and Heng, decide to abuse an animal: power, control, revenge, and sadistic gratification.

Someone committing an act of animal cruelty for revenge would hurt or kill the pet of a person they want to get even with. With sadism, a person who gets off by abusing, harming and/or demeaning others may use an animal to satisfy their desires.

Animal abusers are almost always connected to some kind of other violent behavior, whether by themselves or someone else. Victims of domestic violence are among the most common to engage in or witness animal cruelty. People who suffered sexual abuse as a child are reportedly five times more likely than their non-abused peers to harm an animal.

The backstory of Marinna Rollins and the dog she murdered comes by way of the blog site called ohmidog!, which claims that Rollins’ estranged husband was the original owner of Camboui, whose name was Huey before Marinna took ownership of him. When her ex found out he was to be deployed abroad, she beseeched him to give Cam to her, to which gave in.

https://www.facebook.com/FIGHT.THE.DARK/posts/1335696243176287

Rollins joined the army in 2014 and made Camboui into an official service dog. He was specialized in emotional support for those with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which just so happened to be a condition that his 23-year-old owner ended up with. Marinna finished serving the U.S. earlier this year. It’s not clear when she met accomplice Jerren Heng, but he is reportedly a former U.S. soldier as well.

Days before shooting Camboui to death, Rollins posted on Facebook that she wanted a new home for him.

“‘Sad he has to go, but he will be much happier where he is heading off to,’ Rollins wrote on Facebook.”

“Heng replied to Rollins’ Facebook post with a smiley-face emoji and the words, ‘He’s going to have such a great new life.'”

Could Heng have played a significant part in the death of this innocent pit bull? Or was Marinna’s PTSD too much for her to take and this was her way of lashing out? Perhaps now that they’re behind bars, one or both will decide to talk, but until that happens, all we can do is speculate as to why Camboui had to die.

[Featured Image by Warot Petcharoen/Shutterstock]