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Justice For Willie

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WHERE YOUR GENEROUS DONATIONS WILL BE GOING:

I gave Fallon several chances to tell me the truth and to come clean about where my horse Willie went. She continued to lead me down rabbit holes that led to lie after lie and I cannot go on any longer without having answers and seeing justice.

I believe at this point, the only way I will be able to see justice through for my sweet boy, Willie will be to take her to court under civil action. Due to my own personal financial situation, I unfortunately cannot cover my legal fees. I am afraid though that if I do not take action and bring her to court that the she will be able to continue on with her evil and deceitful escapades.

Your donations will be helping to cover my legal fees for bringing Fallon Blackwood to court. If we end up surpassing our goal and once all of my legal fees are covered, if there are any funds remaining, I would be interested in dispersing what's leftover to other victims in need of help with their legal fees.
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JUSTICE FOR WILLIE:

I have not lost hope but I am being realistic. I may never see my horse again but if me taking Fallon to court will better the chances of protecting innocent horses and their owners in the future, that is the sacrifice I believe is worth taking.

Willie was always an amazing teacher to me and I don't think he is done teaching yet. "Finding Willie" has been the catalyst to something much greater than I could have ever imagined. In a way, I feel like Willie's sacrifice has allowed us to uncover an unfathomable evil. Without Willie, I feel like Fallon would still be out there picking up these poor horses.
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STATE OF GEORGIA CIVIL ACTION BREACH OF CONTRACT:

Our agreement was that Willie was to go to a safe and forever home. I would have first rights of refusal and would be able to come visit him at the address she provided whenever I wanted to.

-Fallon provided me with a fraudulent address on our contract with the intention that I wouldn't be able to come visit or find out where my horse Willie was.
-Fallon did not uphold our agreement to give me First Rights of Refusal.
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OUR STORY: FINDING WILLIE


Due to personal circumstances, in January 2018 I came to the very difficult decision that I needed to re-home my early retired horse, Willie. I felt like I didn't have the time he truly deserved so I went out in search of a forever and loving retirement home for him. I posted an ad to my personal Facebook page, horse related Facebook groups and Craigslist. My ad was titled: “ISO Forever Loving Home For Sweet Retired Appendix Gelding”. 

On January 25, 2018 a woman named Fallon Blackwood reached out to me on Craigslist in regards to this exact ad for my horse, Willie. She was very interested in learning more information about him as she believed she could provide the perfect home for him. She said she was in vet school and was in search of a pasture companion for her barrel horse.

Fallon and I exchanged a few brief e-mails and I gave her my phone number to contact me to give her more information. She called me that same afternoon on the 25th and I vetted her over the phone. She told me she was in school to be a vet and had horses her whole life. She explained how she lived on a horse property that she had been leasing for 7 years and was in search of a companion horse for her barrel horse, VooDoo. She wasn't going to have time to take on a young horse that would need training so Willie would be the perfect fit; a pasture companion for her horse and Willie would be able to eat grass and enjoy the rest of his days with a buddy. She sounded like the absolute ideal candidate.

We decided over the phone that she would come meet both Willie and I that upcoming Sunday, January 28th. His barn was located in Cherokee County, Georgia.

I went out to the barn early Sunday morning to love on Willie. I groomed him up to make him look as best as I could for his potential new owner. It was a rainy and miserable day. To my surprise, Fallon arrived at the barn around 11:00AM with a truck and a horse trailer. My heart dropped. I was under the impression she was coming to just meet Willie and I but in reality, she did drive about 3 hours to get to us so I could understand her strategy as we weren't a quick drive from her home in Alabama. She decided to bring the trailer incase she really liked him. It seemed logical to me considering how much it would be to fuel her truck.

We spoke for a bit in the barn. I told her more history on Willie as I know this horse inside and out. I got him as a 3 coming 4 year old and he was just shy of his 15th birthday in January. He was my first horse and my best friend. 

After I gave Fallon all the knowledge I could about Willie, we just stood there. I asked her what she would like to do and she said she wanted to take him that day. I was surprised and explained how I wasn't emotionally, mentally or professionally prepared. I hadn't planned for him to leave that day as I was anticipating a visit only. I had an appointment scheduled for him to get his feet trimmed on Tuesday. I didn't have any of his paperwork organized, he wasn’t up to date on his coggins and I hadn’t typed up a formalized contract. I am very much a contract woman and always make sure I get things in writing.

Fallon wasn't concerned and seemed to have an answer to everything.

"Oh don't worry. I have my farrier coming out next week."

"I have the vet coming out beginning of March so I'll make sure VooDoo and Willie are all up to date on shots so they're on the same schedule.”

“I won’t be able to come back later this week. I start on a 3 week rotation for emergency calls at vet school tomorrow.”

I was put in a tough situation but the scenario sounded too good to be true. I soon found out, it was. I asked if it would be ok if I wrote up a handwritten contract in the meantime which she signed. I told her that I would be e-mailing her a typed up contract that she could sign and return to me. She verbally agreed that she would return the contract to me. She also agreed that I was able to visit whenever I liked at the address she provided on the handwritten contract. This was supposedly the address where she resided with her horses.

We eventually loaded him up in the pouring rain. We were all soaked. I actually hugged her goodbye and said “thank you”. My skin crawls now at the thought. I gave her about 100 peppermints which are Willie’s favorite treats, gave him a kiss and told him I would come visit him soon. As she pulled out of the pasture with the trailer, Willie screamed for me and I started to sob. Willie went down the road to where I thought was going to be his forever, happy, loving and safe retirement pasture. I was terribly terribly wrong.

It was middle of February 2018 that I had a suspicious feeling about Fallon. I had been checking in with her sporadically to see how Willie was doing and her response was always “He’s doing good!” Although, I hadn’t seen a photo of him yet even though I had asked numerous times.  I had sent a formal contract to her that evening of January 28th when she took him and hadn’t received her signed copy back. I began to worry.

First, I used Google Earth to look at the address she gave me on our hand written contract that claimed to be the farm where she lived and kept her horses. I looked and there was no farm. I became instantly nauseous. Did this woman lie to me?

February 24th, I was confiding in a close friend of mine who works in horse rescue. I was telling her about the pit I had in my stomach about my horse, Willie and how I was afraid that Fallon may not be who she said she was. My friend asked me what her name was. When I told her “Fallon Blackwood” her face went white. She pulled out her phone, went on Facebook and in one of her horse rescue groups, Fallon’s name had been recently flagged as working in association with kill buyers. My heart sunk and I immediately sunk into a puddle of hysterical tears.

I composed myself and my dear friend advised me to reach out to Fallon and play dumb. Saying that I was absolutely heartbroken without Willie and how I needed to get him back. Even though money was not exchanged, I was willing to buy him back from her for any inconveniences. I did just that.

She ignored my text for several hours when she had been quick to respond in the past. I decided to fib a bit and added that a friend of mine who lived close to me was in dire need of a pasture mate as she recently had to put down one of her elderly horses. I told Fallon that my situation changed and I would pay to get him back home and close to me. She still stayed silent.

A few hours later, I texted Fallon that I knew what her gig was. She responded nearly immediately to that text and said she didn’t know what I was talking about and how Willie was doing great in his new home and how her niece was very attached to him. I knew this was a ploy so I decided to take action.

On February 25, 2018, I created a public Facebook page called “Finding Willie” where I shared my story and was in desperate search to find my horse and bring him home safely. It spread like wildfire overnight and reached over 50k people in about 70 hours. People were outraged by hearing my story about my horse, Willie and through the “Finding Willie” page, I quickly started to learn that this was a problem much greater than Willie and I. In just a days time, I learned of several innocent horse owners who like me, had their horses taken under false pre-tense by Fallon Blackwood. 

Click here for the Facebook page: Finding Willie 

Today, April 6, 2018, our current headcount via Missing Horse Report filings through NetPosse.com aka Stolen Horses International, we have 26 horse owner victims and 39 reported horses. These numbers are rapidly growing as we have had recent exposure in the media. All of these innocent horses have one thing in common: They have fallen into the dishonest hands of Fallon Blackwood.

Click here to see the list of victims: Victims of Fallon Blackwood 
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This story started with Willie but it is much greater now. It is OUR story. All 26 of us horse owners victimized by the same woman and the numbers continue to rise. 

Thank you to everyone who has been following our story, showing us support and love as well as praying for Willie's safe return or at the very least, answers to finding out where Willie ended up.

#FindingWillie #JusticeForWillie #FindingWillieandFriends #NetPosse #StolenHorsesInternational #BringingHorsesHome
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Donations 

  • Sarah Gilmer Payne
    • $50 
    • 5 yrs
  • Lisa Rispoli & Susan Beth Cox
    • $500 (Offline)
    • 6 yrs
  • Bosco's Buddies
    • $500 (Offline)
    • 6 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $2,240 (Offline)
    • 6 yrs
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Organiser

Lindsay Anne
Organiser
Cleveland, GA

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