LAS VEGAS — A 17-year-old girl allegedly turned a high-stakes barrel racing showdown into a bloodbath, sneaking into a South Point Arena barn around 2 a.m. and plunging a knife into three top competition horses in a deranged act of obsession-fueled cruelty.
The suspect, identified in online reports and police sources as Emily Grace Boyd, a fellow competitor at the National Barrel Horse Association’s Professional’s Choice Vegas Super Show, faces a dozen charges, including multiple counts of felony animal cruelty and malicious destruction of property. Cops say she had easy access to the barns as a participant.
One devastated owner, barrel racer Arielle Phillips, blasted the teen as a “crazy obsessed stalker” who had been cyber-stalking her for months, fixated on her mare Detail and desperate for a meet-and-greet that Phillips ignored.
“I was sitting with Detail at her stall for an hour at 11 p.m.,” Phillips wrote in a raw Facebook post that’s gone viral. “This girl came by twice, trying to make conversation and ask weird questions. She had no business in Barn A.”
Just two minutes after Phillips left at 12:02 a.m., surveillance cameras captured the horror: the girl allegedly slipped in and stabbed Detail six times. The terrified horse panicked, broke loose, and bolted through the aisles with blood pouring everywhere.
Phillips rushed back to find the girl already there, claiming she “found” the injured horse and was trying to help. Vets confirmed clean stab wounds. Detail, spooked and traumatized, now shies away even from her owner’s hand.
Two other high-value horses — including Sully (also known as Saaul Good), owned by Hailey Krahenbuhl, were also slashed multiple times in what cops believe was a targeted spree. All three animals received stitches and antibiotics on the spot. They’re stable and expected to survive, but are scratched from the competition.
The grisly scene, blood-soaked stalls, frantic horses, and a barn turned crime scene, has rocked the tight-knit Western riding world, where these equine athletes can be worth hundreds of thousands or even millions.
LVMPD’s Animal Cruelty Section jumped on the case fast. Detectives used barn video, witness accounts, and quick work to nab the teen at a nearby hotel without incident. She’s being held at Clark County Juvenile Hall on no bail ahead of an arraignment.
