Death toll hits 42

Police in Two States Probe Cat Mutilations
Death toll hits 42




By Jason Felch, Special to The Denver Post

Two more mutilated cats were found in Aurora on Saturday, the latest
in a series of similar mutilations that have left as many as 42 cats
in the metro area dead.

A woman walking her dog found the first cat on a sidewalk near Smoky
Hill Road and South Chambers Road about 7 a.m. Several hours later, an
anonymous tip led police to another cat carcass in a field near South
Peoria Street and East Cornell Avenue.

Aurora police spokeswoman Kathleen Walsh said the new cases raise the
total number of mutilations in Aurora to 18. Preliminary numbers show
seven more instances of cat mutilations in Denver, nine in Parker,
four in Arapahoe County, two in Centennial, one in Lafayette and one
in Jefferson County.

Walsh emphasized that the number of mutilations in each district may
change as authorities continue to investigate.

Authorities are treating each case as a suspicious death until
investigators at the Denver Dumb Friends League can perform necropsies
on the animals to determine the exact causes of death.

Kim Hughes found Bugsy lying still in the wet grass when he went to
get the newspaper at 5:45 a.m. recently. He stooped down to gently
shake the 15-year-old cat and only then saw the animal's lung in the
grass a foot away.

He turned and walked into his Aurora house to tell his wife, Christy,
the news. "Bugsy has been killed. Don't come out and look. You don't
want to see it," he told her.

Six minutes later, Hughes went back outside to collect Bugsy and found
a grisly new scene. The animal's small intestines and stomach had been
arranged in "a ridiculous connect-the-dots" pattern, Hughes said. The
scene was completely bloodless. Hughes looked down the block and saw
no one in either direction.

Investigators told the family they believe Bugsy's killer may have
"posed" the cat in front of the house and waited to see the family's
reaction.

"That's as disturbing as the mutilation," said Christy Hughes. "I
think evil is word for it. Not sick. Evil."

Utah investigators are studying a string of at least 14 recent cat
mutilations in a Salt Lake City neighborhood that they say are similar
to the Denver-area cases. Utah authorities are comparing notes with
metro-area police and weighing a possible connection.

"We're going to really take a look at the connections," said Peggy
Call, a crime analyst with the Salt Lake City police who has seen
information from the Denver investigation.

Call said Utah authorities also are looking at similar cat mutilations
that have taken place in other U.S. cities and Canada in recent years.
In California, Texas, Florida, Oregon, Arizona and other states, there
have been serial cat mutilations in which the animals have been
dismembered or disemboweled. In many of these cases, the remains of
the bodies are left bloodless in front of or near the owner's home.

The task force of Aurora and Denver authorities investigating the
local cases has refused to disclose details of its investigation and
would not comment on cases in other states.

"The Utah and Colorado cases are on almost exactly the same time
schedule," said Temma Martin, spokeswoman for Salt Lake County Animal
Services. "Somehow they seem to be linked. The timing is similar; the
injuries are similar."

While stressing that no connection has yet been made, Call and Martin
point to a number of striking similarities between cases that have led
them to look harder at Colorado and other states.

In many of the incidents in the Denver area and around the country,
the mutilated cats disappear after owners put them out for the night,
and are found mutilated near the owner's house in the early-morning
hours. They are often clustered in a close geographic area. Often the
mutilations stop in the winter and resume in the spring or summer.

Pet owners and neighbors in the Denver area say they are frightened by
what the cat mutilations might lead to next.

"It's a serial killing," said Carol DeYoung, whose 13-year-old silver
tabby, Mozart, was beheaded last October and found on East Kansas
Place in Aurora. "These killers, these sadists, turn into adults who
are serial killers. It needs to be addressed more thoroughly than
they've done it."

Aurora police, who took over the case from the Aurora Animal Care
Division last week, say they are taking the case very seriously and
have assigned a full-time detective to it. They also are comparing
notes with authorities in Utah. Investigators from at least six law
enforcement agencies and four animal care agencies are working on the
Denver task force, Walsh said.Representatives of the Denver task force
and Utah authorities said they have not eliminated any possibilities
in the cases, and are considering a range of hypotheses.

The possible involvement of satanic cults was raised in Utah when
authorities there found the numbers "666" and a pentagram 50 feet from
one of the mutilated cats. But there was no evidence of a connection
between the cats and the symbols, both found in a cemetery, and some
experts on satanic practices say the mutilations do not match any
known satanic ritual, Utah authorities said.

The most common theory among investigators is that a mentally ill
person acting alone is responsible for the mutilations. In past
incidents, teenagers have often been found to be responsible.

It is significant if the animals are mutilated before or after they're
dead, said Frank Ascione, an expert on animal and human abuse at Utah
State University. That detail will help investigators determine if the
true motive is to hurt animals or their owners, Ascione said.

"Or this may be a way they leave their mark," Ascione said. "Tagging
with carcasses."

Until authorities are able to solve the case, they're asking pet
owners to keep their pets indoors at night. They also are asking
people to report any suspicious behavior in their neighborhoods, such
as someone trying to coax, lure or pick up a cat. A reward of $12,000
is being offered by the Denver Dumb Friends League for information
that leads to an arrest in the case.

Meanwhile, owners of cats that have been killed are grieving for their
pets, which they liken to losing a child.

"We cried for weeks," said Maryann Walker, who took care of Byron for
years until he was mutilated last October near Newport Street and
Niagara Way. Now she says she refuses to let the other pets she
watches out of sight.

Many of the bodies of cats in the case have not been returned to their
owners, and may not be until the investigation is complete.

"When they take your cat away in a plastic bag," said Christy Hughes,
"you don't get to say goodbye."

http://www.stevequayle.com/News.aler...ated.cats.html

James Marz

Born in lust, turn to dust.
Born in sin? come on in! - Stephen King

On Thu, 27 May 2004 17:08:39 UTC, (James Marz)
wrote:

Police in Two States Probe Cat Mutilations
Death toll hits 42




By Jason Felch, Special to The Denver Post

Two more mutilated cats were found in Aurora on Saturday, the latest
in a series of similar mutilations that have left as many as 42 cats
in the metro area dead.


And yet they are still letting their cats go outside!!

LT

On Thu, 27 May 2004 17:08:39 UTC, (James Marz)
wrote:

Police in Two States Probe Cat Mutilations
Death toll hits 42




By Jason Felch, Special to The Denver Post

Two more mutilated cats were found in Aurora on Saturday, the latest
in a series of similar mutilations that have left as many as 42 cats
in the metro area dead.


And yet they are still letting their cats go outside!!

LT

On Fri, 28 May 2004 01:51:45 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:


If you do a Google search on cat mutilation Aurora 42 you will find
that this all happened in July 2003.

On Fri, 28 May 2004 01:51:45 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:


If you do a Google search on cat mutilation Aurora 42 you will find
that this all happened in July 2003.

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:05:31 UTC, Nan
wrote:

On Fri, 28 May 2004 01:51:45 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:


If you do a Google search on cat mutilation Aurora 42 you will find
that this all happened in July 2003.


It wouldn't ha ehappened if people kept their cats indoors.

LT

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:05:31 UTC, Nan
wrote:

On Fri, 28 May 2004 01:51:45 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:


If you do a Google search on cat mutilation Aurora 42 you will find
that this all happened in July 2003.


It wouldn't ha ehappened if people kept their cats indoors.

LT

On Fri, 28 May 2004 16:41:52 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:05:31 UTC, Nan
wrote:

On Fri, 28 May 2004 01:51:45 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:


If you do a Google search on cat mutilation Aurora 42 you will find
that this all happened in July 2003.


It wouldn't ha ehappened if people kept their cats indoors.

LT

That's true, it wouldn't have happened if people kept their cats
indoors, but a lot of people don't for one reason or another. The
reason that I posted about the Google search was that James Marz is a
troll who is trying to stir up trouble on the cats ng's. He keeps
changing his email address so that it is hard to killfile him. I
thought that I remembered reading about the mutilated cats last summer
so I did a search to find out for sure.

Nan

On Fri, 28 May 2004 16:41:52 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:

On Fri, 28 May 2004 02:05:31 UTC, Nan
wrote:

On Fri, 28 May 2004 01:51:45 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:


If you do a Google search on cat mutilation Aurora 42 you will find
that this all happened in July 2003.


It wouldn't ha ehappened if people kept their cats indoors.

LT

That's true, it wouldn't have happened if people kept their cats
indoors, but a lot of people don't for one reason or another. The
reason that I posted about the Google search was that James Marz is a
troll who is trying to stir up trouble on the cats ng's. He keeps
changing his email address so that it is hard to killfile him. I
thought that I remembered reading about the mutilated cats last summer
so I did a search to find out for sure.

Nan

"Nan" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 28 May 2004 16:41:52 GMT, "Linda Terrell"
wrote:



It wouldn't ha ehappened if people kept their cats indoors.

LT

That's true, it wouldn't have happened if people kept their cats
indoors, but a lot of people don't for one reason or another. The
reason that I posted about the Google search was that James Marz is a
troll who is trying to stir up trouble on the cats ng's. He keeps
changing his email address so that it is hard to killfile him. I
thought that I remembered reading about the mutilated cats last summer
so I did a search to find out for sure.

Nan


Yes, he is a troll; but an inept one. And as such, he will never gain
membership into the Troll Hall of Fame. Before a troll wannabee can be
accepted into that august echelon, s/he must have demonstrated at least a
modicum of knowledge concerning the newsgroup's subjects of discussion.
Just being a poster of silly, pathetic, attention-begging pithiness will not
qualify. The board recognizes the amateurish nature of such as he, and they
move on.

So, he is forever destined to hang out in the ng's, to hunt and peck his
hackneyed messages while he clasps himself with the other hand in vicarious
ecstasy. A hunched and hairy-palmed, pitiful figure he is.

Paul Piper, DVM, CAVN
CEO, Felines Inc.
Minneapolis