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A VET who vanished without a trace after a video showing him kicking a horse went viral has been found dead.
Shawn Frehner’s body was found in the Lake Mead reservoir over the Easter weekend – more than two weeks after he went missing.
He vanished after being slammed over a video that showed him kicking a horse.
Frehner was last seen on April 6 and cops honed in on the Lake Mead area before finding his keys, wallet and cellphone in his parked truck.
Las Vegas cops revealed a body was found on April 18 before identifying the remains as Frehner’s.
He was identified via his dental records, as reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Frehner’s cause and manner of death have not been revealed.
But, his dad, Rex, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal he believed the vet owned a gun.
However, he’s unsure if he would’ve taken it to the lake.
Rex last heard from his son at 9am on the morning he vanished.
He claimed his son was having a “hard time” when it came to his horses, according to a missing person’s report seen by the CBS affiliate KLAS-TV.
Rex admitted he didn’t know why his son would travel to the Lake Mead area.
He said that Frehner didn’t own a boat.
The search involved cops, volunteers, as well as aerial and marine teams.
Frehner’s death comes as he was facing allegations of animal cruelty.
Shawna Gonzalez accused him of kicking a horse that he was treating.
Frehner was heavily criticized after the video surfaced online, and he tried to explain what had happened.
He said he was trying to give an anaesthetic to the horse during a medical check.
He claimed the horse panicked and feared it was going to break its neck.
Frehner said the horse was partly trapped in its stall, which prompted him to take action.
“I could not get him free until I grabbed the paneling and pushed him out with my foot,” he said in a now-deleted Facebook post.
Frehner said the animal was struggling to breathe before hitting it on the cheek.
“When I did that, he turned into my foot and I did kick him directly in the chin,” he said.
He issued a groveling apology, saying he wished the incident never happened.
Frehner received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from The Ohio State University in 1997 before starting his own business in Las Vegas the following year.
In 2016, he had his license suspended for a year.
And, officials in Nevada had previously put him on probation over how he had handed out medication.
Lake Mead is known for its striking landscapes and 700-mile shoreline, but human remains have been found at the reservoir.
In May 2022, human remains were discovered inside a barrel and investigators suspect the victim was killed in the 1980s.
One man, Donald Smith, drowned in the water in 1974 and he wasn’t formally identified until almost 50 years later.