Ferret owner accuses pregnant house guest of putting pet in oven

MANCHESTER, N.H. — A woman was arrested in New Hampshire early Wednesday morning after allegedly putting a ferret in an oven and burning it alive.

Ivana Clifford, 26, was arrested outside an apartment building on Lowell Street in Manchester after it was evacuated due to smoke.

According to police, the smoke was coming from the third-floor oven.

Firefighters discovered the gruesome find inside that oven. The dead animal reportedly covered in “distinct linear burn marks” consistent with the shape of the oven coil.

“I don’t understand what’s going on in this world anymore. There’s shootings. There’s stabbings. There’s killings. Now one of our ferrets just got killed," Cara Murray, the ferret’s owner said.

Cara Murray and her boyfriend James Klimavich live in the apartment.

They said they had just met Clifford less than one month ago and invited her to temporarily move in with them.

The couple told Boston 25 News that they extended the gesture because Clifford told them she was pregnant and had no place else to stay.

“How can someone do that? You help someone out. You bring them into your home, and they end up killing one of your animals, really? That’s just sick,” Murray told Boston 25 News reporter Drew Karedes.

Investigators say Clifford admitted to putting the ferret in the oven and claimed she was mad at Murray for stealing her clothes.

However, Murray says that's not the case. She said Clifford was angry after the ferret had bit her on Tuesday night.

“There was no fight between us. There were no issues. I could sit here and have a normal conversation with this girl. It blew my mind,” Murray said.

Clifford has been charged with animal cruelty.

Her defense attorney asked for the pregnant suspect’s release from jail during her arraignment.

The judge ordered she be held on $10,000 cash bail.

"These allegations reveal a profound level of sadism," Judge Gillian Abramson said in Hillsborough County Superior Court.

Murray said she will never forgive Clifford for what she did.

She called her pet ferret, named Angel, “one of her children” and believes the hurt is going to last for a while.

“I wanted to hurt her,” she cried. “It’s disgusting. How is this girl going to care for a child someday?”

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