Pet-Eating Immigrant Conspiracy’s Patient Zero Heard It Fourth-Hand

The social media user who posted what appears to be one of the first reports of Haitian migrants kidnapping and eating family pets in Springfield, Ohio was simply repeating a story she had heard from a neighbor, who’d heard it themselves from a friend, who’d heard it from someone else, according to a new report. Reporters from NewsGuard, a company that works to counter online misinformation, tracked down the poster, a Springfield woman named Erika Lee, who admitted to being the source of the Facebook rumor that traveled from her keyboard to Donald Trump , who repeated the baseless claims at Tuesday night’s presidential debate, in just a matter of days. But Lee said the story—concerning a cat found hung from a tree for butchering—hadn’t happened to her. Instead, a neighbor named Kimberly Newton told her. When contacted by NewsGuard, Newton said, “I’m not sure I’m the most credible source because I don’t actually know the person who lost the cat,” adding the cat’s owner was the “acquaintance of a friend.” Newton added: “I don’t have any proof.” City officials and police have said there has been no evidence or credible reports of people’s pets being abducted or harmed by members of the immigrant community.

Read it at NewsGuard

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