TikTok fan killed man who let her Pomeranian escape, court told
A TikToker killed a man who let her pet Pomeranian escape before boasting online about the murder, a court has heard.
Winter Swan-Miller, 37, is accused of stabbing 62-year-old Stuart Crocker 26 times after her therapy dog, Oblivion, escaped from her home in Hampshire.
Crocker’s body was found surrounded by notes which read “take my f------ dog you wh-re. This is why I’ve done this haha” and “taking my dog, are you real?”
In TikTok videos posted after his death, Ms Swan-Miller boasted about how she had “been a bad girl” and said “I don’t feel like I’ve done a bad thing at all”.
Opening the trial at Winchester Crown Court, prosecutors said she had hoped to achieve “fame and notoriety” by posting about the murder online.
Crocker’s death, which police believe occurred on the morning of June 23, came after he let the small and fluffy white dog escape from the home that he shared with Ms Swan-Miller near Andover, the court heard.
The dog was stolen but had returned to Ms Swan-Miller by June 21, according to a video on her TikTok account, which remains online.
Nicola Shannon KC, prosecuting, said Ms Swan-Miller murdered Crocker, whose body was found five days after his death when a neighbour reported a foul smell to police which he compared to a “damp carpet”.
The body was surrounded by notes, which Ms Shannon said were part of “a trail she (Ms Swan-Miller) left for pigs, in her words, to follow”.
After Crocker’s death, the court heard, Ms Swan-Miller travelled to a McDonald’s in Andover town centre and ate a sausage and egg McMuffin, before fleeing to Birmingham where she was arrested on June 30.
In the days between her arrest and Crocker’s death, Ms Swan-Miller posted several videos on TikTok which were shown to the court.
In one video, titled “Part Two”, she can be heard saying: “Taking my dog from me, the only thing in the entire world that I’ve got.
“I did do what I did and I did it because I had no choice. They took away the only thing in my life that I have got, and that’s my dog Oblivion.”
‘My morals let me do it’
She added: “You took away my dog, you all did this.”
And in another, she said: “I swore if anyone hurt my dog I would never let it go. I did it as a f------ statement my morals let me do it.”
Ms Swan-Miller has pleaded not guilty to murder and two counts of fraud.
Edward Jones, 44, who is accused of letting Ms Swan-Miller stay with him in Birmingham, has pleaded not guilty to assisting an offender, and to one count of fraud.
The trial, due to last five weeks, continues.
