Miami Area Sees Rash of Cat Mutilations
Miami Area Sees Rash of Cat Mutilations
By SARAH LARIMER, AP
(June 10) -- The black cat's body was found in the grass, just feet from the hedges where she slept each day.
Miss Kitty was still warm to the touch when the South Florida couple who cared for her found her in the yard next door. Her head was smashed and her back legs skinned, like pieces of chicken in a grocer's freezer. And she was not the only one to suffer such a fate.
Alicia Glatzer holds a photo of one her cats, Sarah, Tuesday, at her home in Miami, Fla. Sarah is one of about two dozen cats that have been brutally killed over the past month in two south Miami-Dade County communities.
Horrified owners have been finding their cats killed and mutilated for the past month in two south Miami-Dade County communities. Many of the cats were missing fur and appeared to have been cut with a sharp, straight instrument, police said. In all, investigators are looking into about two dozen deaths, with enough evidence to try to prosecute at least 15 of the cases.
"Every time I hear about someone else, I'm in their shoes and I see my cat again," said Mary Lou Shad, who fed and cared for Miss Kitty with her husband for the past year. Although the cat was feral, they considered her their pet.
I feel terrorized to the point where everywhere I go, I'm looking for dead cats on the side of the road," Shad said.
Investigators don't yet know who or what is behind the gruesome cat deaths in Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay, but owners are keeping their pets inside, raising reward money and warily eyeing strangers.
Police spokeswoman Rebeca Perez said the manner of death indicates a person killed the animals, and that the deaths could be linked. So far, there's no indication the killer or killers plan to attack people.
Whoever's responsible "hasn't given any indication that this is some sort of a threat where this person's going to commit these crimes against a human being," Perez said.
The Shads' canary-colored home sits in a calm suburban neighborhood of small one-story houses, neat lawns and caring neighbors. There is a school nearby and a park with swings and playground equipment. An ice cream truck rumbles through, its tune echoing down the streets.
But the apparent tranquility belies residents' anger and fear.
"Be aware that there is a psychopathic coward, killing cats," reads one poster taped to a neighborhood street sign.
The sign is not far from the home of 68-year-old Barbara Wiesinger, whose cat, Cami, was found in a neighbor's yard this month. Wiesinger said she saw the calico's fur poking up in a patch of grass. She immediately knew her pet was dead.
"This is not an accident. This is somebody sick," she said.
Allison Smith, who watched her 4-year-old son and her 6-year-old nephew play barefoot in the local park on a muggy afternoon this week, said she recently called the police to her Palmetto Bay home after she found bowls in her front yard. She worried someone might be trying to lure out her two cats, Marvin and Molly, but the bowls simply belonged to a neighbor. Still, she is keeping the cats inside.
"They were inside-outside," Smith said. "But not anymore."
Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said residents should be cautious, even if initial signs don't indicate humans are in danger. He said the man believed to the "Boston Strangler" also shot cats with arrows.
"This should be taken as seriously as could possibly be," he said.
Local authorities are urging pet owners to keep their animals indoors. A tip line has also been established, and local organizations have contributed thousands in reward money for information would helps lead to the arrest of the culprit.
A month ago, 42-year-old Alicia Glatzer's husband found their cat, Sarah, outside their Palmetto Bay home. The cat had been skinned and half of her face was missing. The family initially thought that the cat had been hit by a car, but a week later learned of the other killings.
These days, Glatzer looks at people's hands and arms for scratch marks. She hopes for a stronger police presence in their neighborhood after what happened to Sarah, a pretty white cat with a black and tan tail that adopted the family about three years ago.
"I'm afraid that we are going to be prey," Glatzer said. "Our cats have fallen to prey. Who's to say that we are not next?"
By SARAH LARIMER, AP
(June 10) -- The black cat's body was found in the grass, just feet from the hedges where she slept each day.
Miss Kitty was still warm to the touch when the South Florida couple who cared for her found her in the yard next door. Her head was smashed and her back legs skinned, like pieces of chicken in a grocer's freezer. And she was not the only one to suffer such a fate.
Alicia Glatzer holds a photo of one her cats, Sarah, Tuesday, at her home in Miami, Fla. Sarah is one of about two dozen cats that have been brutally killed over the past month in two south Miami-Dade County communities.
Horrified owners have been finding their cats killed and mutilated for the past month in two south Miami-Dade County communities. Many of the cats were missing fur and appeared to have been cut with a sharp, straight instrument, police said. In all, investigators are looking into about two dozen deaths, with enough evidence to try to prosecute at least 15 of the cases.
"Every time I hear about someone else, I'm in their shoes and I see my cat again," said Mary Lou Shad, who fed and cared for Miss Kitty with her husband for the past year. Although the cat was feral, they considered her their pet.
I feel terrorized to the point where everywhere I go, I'm looking for dead cats on the side of the road," Shad said.
Investigators don't yet know who or what is behind the gruesome cat deaths in Cutler Bay and Palmetto Bay, but owners are keeping their pets inside, raising reward money and warily eyeing strangers.
Police spokeswoman Rebeca Perez said the manner of death indicates a person killed the animals, and that the deaths could be linked. So far, there's no indication the killer or killers plan to attack people.
Whoever's responsible "hasn't given any indication that this is some sort of a threat where this person's going to commit these crimes against a human being," Perez said.
The Shads' canary-colored home sits in a calm suburban neighborhood of small one-story houses, neat lawns and caring neighbors. There is a school nearby and a park with swings and playground equipment. An ice cream truck rumbles through, its tune echoing down the streets.
But the apparent tranquility belies residents' anger and fear.
"Be aware that there is a psychopathic coward, killing cats," reads one poster taped to a neighborhood street sign.
The sign is not far from the home of 68-year-old Barbara Wiesinger, whose cat, Cami, was found in a neighbor's yard this month. Wiesinger said she saw the calico's fur poking up in a patch of grass. She immediately knew her pet was dead.
"This is not an accident. This is somebody sick," she said.
Allison Smith, who watched her 4-year-old son and her 6-year-old nephew play barefoot in the local park on a muggy afternoon this week, said she recently called the police to her Palmetto Bay home after she found bowls in her front yard. She worried someone might be trying to lure out her two cats, Marvin and Molly, but the bowls simply belonged to a neighbor. Still, she is keeping the cats inside.
"They were inside-outside," Smith said. "But not anymore."
Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said residents should be cautious, even if initial signs don't indicate humans are in danger. He said the man believed to the "Boston Strangler" also shot cats with arrows.
"This should be taken as seriously as could possibly be," he said.
Local authorities are urging pet owners to keep their animals indoors. A tip line has also been established, and local organizations have contributed thousands in reward money for information would helps lead to the arrest of the culprit.
A month ago, 42-year-old Alicia Glatzer's husband found their cat, Sarah, outside their Palmetto Bay home. The cat had been skinned and half of her face was missing. The family initially thought that the cat had been hit by a car, but a week later learned of the other killings.
These days, Glatzer looks at people's hands and arms for scratch marks. She hopes for a stronger police presence in their neighborhood after what happened to Sarah, a pretty white cat with a black and tan tail that adopted the family about three years ago.
"I'm afraid that we are going to be prey," Glatzer said. "Our cats have fallen to prey. Who's to say that we are not next?"
Tags: animal, county, cruelty, dade, florida, miami, murder, seral
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by Oktobersnest on -
It breaks my heart when I hear of things like this. And I pray whoever is involved in doing this get their just rewards behind bars. And I pray they're iron deficient and stay behind those bars for quite awhile. We have enough animals that are being abused in shelters right now without this going on also. And to be tortured, they're sick bastards!
-
Permalink Reply by SIN on -
Purloined Pets Perplex Plano Police
By Mike Sullivan
CUT-UP KITTIES CLUES IN CULT CRIMES?
It depends on whom you ask.
If you ask Plano resident and self-proclaimed Satanic cult investigator Diane Randolph about the 99 cats reported missing in her town over a nine month period, she'll tell you they are clear evidence of a Satanic cult.
If you ask Plano police detective Mark Box, he'll tell you that those missing cats and the nine mutilated pets found in Plano last year lead him to suspect Satanic cult activities. If you ask Steve Smith of the Texas Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, he'll say that a hundred missing pets in a town the size of Plano is not unusual at all. But let's start at the beginning.
I talked to Diane Randolph after she called NTS President John Blanton to give him her thoughts on some mutilated animals found in Parker county. She was interested in the topic because she's doing some research on Satanic cult activities and the connection to animal mutilations.
We chatted about the dead animals, which later were found to have been mistreated and dumped there by a local rancher. Ms. Randolph soon told me that she had been "working with" the Plano police to help them investigate some cat disappearances that had been happening there. She referred me to Detective Box.
Detective Box is a 25-year police veteran, with 20 of those years spent as an investigator. He's been with the Plano department for eight years, and is assigned to the department's Criminal Intelligence Division.
Detective Box investigates everything from vice cases to gang activities to crimes involving the occult and Satanism. He has attended two special police training seminars on Satanic and occult crimes, he said. Detective Box granted me a half-hour telephone interview for this story.
He says it all started in the spring of 1991, when two Plano residents spotted the cut-up remains of two or possibly three cats in a city park while jogging. At the time, a short-form police report was made of the incident and Detective Box says he didn't pay much attention to the matter.
"In a city of this size, in this country, unfortunately, in this day and age, you're going to have some of that, in any city," Detective Box said. "I figured it was some kid, some teenagers out here dabbling with the occult, or just mean, just being mischievous, " he said.
About two months later, just the front half of another mutilated cat was found along a bike trail by a resident , this time with a wooden surveyor's stake driven into the ground. Diane Randolph and Detective Box both said that the stake has Satanic significance. Two weeks after that incident, another mutilated cat was found in a nearby area.
What finally got Detective Box's attention was when a resident who lives in a newly-built area of town reported her cat missing to the police department. The owner's home is surrounded on three sides by open fields, Detective Box said, and the owner was told by the Plano animal control department that they thought a coyote may have gotten the cat.
The resident didn't believe that was the case, and so she canvassed her neighbors to see if they had seen her cat. Of the six neighbors she contacted, three of them were also missing a cat. "I think it went without saying at that point that something was up. That's more than a coincidence," Detective Box said. "I agreed with her: something out of the ordinary is occurring. I did agree with her that I didn't think it was coyotes that were getting these cats, even though she lives where she lives, and Collin County does have a coyote problem," he said.
Detective Box then checked the police records going back to the beginning of 1991: two cats and eight dogs were reported missing to the Plano police. That was not unusual, Detective Box said, because people generally do not report missing cats to the police department since it is not a police matter.
Detective Box next got permission from his superiors to put a story in the Plano Star-Courier advising residents to call the Plano police if their pet turned up missing. The item ran on September 11, 1991, and Detective Box said that the paper did a good job of keeping the story low-key, so as not to unduly alarm the community. Soon after the story appeared in the paper, two mutilated cats and one mutilated puppy were found behind a business along Central Expressway in Plano. Several other local media outlets picked up the story, and soon Detective Box was swamped with hundreds of calls from all over the Metroplex, all reporting a missing cat, some from as long ago as 1989.
"I had a lot of well-meaning people call in with every kind of theory you can imagine about what was happening to these cats. It ran the gamut from coyotes to laboratories having them picked up to experiment on them, to the MUFON people, the "little green men", so to speak," Detective Box said.
Up to this point, Detective Box had evidence of possibly eight cats and one puppy found mutilated in Plano over a nine month period. He had reports of missing cats, which he narrowed down to less than 100 verified within Plano during the year, and he had people suggesting possible explanations for the disappearing pets. One of the explanations Detective Box listened to came from Plano animal control supervisor Gary Masters, a former Plano police officer. He told Detective Box that in his opinion, the missing cats could be blamed on the coyotes. Mr. Masters still holds that view, and he thinks it is the best explanation for the disappearances.
He works with lost and missing animals everyday, and his department gets approximately 200 cats per month that are picked up or brought in by the citizens. The animal control department makes every effort to contact the owners of those cats whenever possible, Detective Box said. Sadly, most of those cats must be destroyed when those efforts turn out negative and no one claims the animal.
Could it be that the cats reported missing by the citizens resulting from the Star-Courier story are the same cats destroyed by Plano's animal control department every month? No, according to Detective Box. He said that the animals brought to the pound and destroyed are typically not the well-fed, happy house cats reported missing by the citizens, but instead they are the stray and abandoned cats found in every city.
In almost every instance, the cats Detective Box had listed as missing in Plano were cats that never strayed far from the back yard of the owner, and many would only be let outside for a few hours a day. They were simply not the kind of cats that would wander off, he said.
If this is the case, and, as Detective Box believes, a Satanic cult is involved, then someone must literally be stealing these helpless kitties from private properties all over town. Perhaps someone would have seen the crime being committed by now.
But after all the publicity and all the phone calls, no one has called to report seeing anyone steal their cat, or to report anyone lurking in the backyard of a Plano home attempting to nab a cat, or to report that they have information about who, if anyone, was kidnapping the cats. In fact, Detective Box has no active leads on this case at all. The reports of missing cats have virtually stopped now, more than three months after the newspaper and broadcast outlets covered the story.
Even undercover surveillance of people in Plano that Detective Box said are known to dabble in the occult turned up without any clues to the missing cats. As Detective Box said, "They're not going to do these types of things where people can see them."
Let's look at the statistics that might account for those 99 missing Plano cats. Dallas has just over 1 million residents, and Plano has nearly 130,000. Steve Smith of the Texas Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals guesses that Plano might have more pets per capita than the city of Dallas, owing to the greater ratio of private homes to apartments in Plano.
He says his office gets about 900 missing pet reports per month, mainly cats and dogs, or almost exactly one lost pet per 1,100 population per month. Of those 900, about one-third are reported as returning home after one month. If Plano pets turn up missing and return home at about the same rate as Dallas pets, Plano could expect about 120 missing pet reports per month, and about 40 of those pets might be reunited with their owners.
Plano might also experience more missing pets than Dallas, Smith told me, because of the large undeveloped areas still found in the suburb, where coyotes can kill the hapless house pet that wanders into an open field.
Cats and dogs running loose are also prone to getting hit by cars and trains, falling down manholes, being killed in fights with other pets, being trapped and killed by animal-hating residents, falling victim to cruel pranks by teenagers, slipping into a river or stream and drowning, or simply wandering off, not to be seen again.
So if statistics have anything to say in this case, it would be that Plano should have more missing cats per capita than the city of Dallas in a given period. Yet during the nine months in question, Detective Box says he had confirmed reports of only 99 missing cats within the city of Plano.
Using the Dallas averages to extrapolate to what Plano could expect, Detective Box might have received reports of over 700 missing pets that never returned home in those nine months. He carefully discarded any reports he did not receive directly from the owner. Also, not every resident may have known about the request for missing cat reports from the Star-Courier story. Even with those exclusions, 99 missing cats over a nine month period would be low, not high for Plano.
As of early December 1991, all Detective Box has for physical evidence is approximately nine mutilated domestic animals found over a nine month period. The reports of 99 missing cats, as sad as they are, do not seem unusual for a city the size of Plano. No eyewitnesses of cult involvement have come forward, and the tips regarding alleged Satanic connection have not led Detective Box anywhere in this case.
What happened to the missing pets in Plano? Detective Box doesn't know. Diane Randolph doesn't know, and Detective Box said that he doesn't recall "working with" her on this case as she told me. But if Steve Smith's figures can be applied to Plano, at least in general, then 99 missing cats in nine months is not out of the ordinary.
If someone is grabbing pets from the yards of Plano residents, Detective Box would like to find them and arrest them. And if some sick individual is torturing, mutilating and killing those innocent animals, he'd like to find them, too.
"I've got 25 years of police experience. I've been an investigator for 20 of those 25 years. I'm not stupid. I don't have all the answers, but I would stake my career on the fact that something is going on here," Detective Box said. "The bottom line is, I think it's something to do with the occult."
-
Permalink Reply by SIN on
-
My initial thoughts on this, that the investigator may be right. Perhaps there is some significance in the cat mutilations, give the number of cats which have been found dead. Just some random asshole targeting cats? Perhaps, but then again - there may be some occult significance.
-
Permalink Reply by Ariana Afsanay Di Ly on -
18-Year-Old Arrested in Cat Mutilations
AP
MIAMI (June 14)
Authorities say a teenager has been arrested and accused of committing a series of cat mutilation deaths in his Miami area community.The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office says 18-year-old Tyler Weinman was taken into custody early Sunday. He is charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty, 19 counts of improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle says she hopes the residents of the Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay neighborhoods "will feel relieved and their cats will be safe once again."
Prosecutors say Weinman is in police custody. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney yet.
Horrified owners have been finding their cats killed and mutilated for the past month. Investigators have been looking into about two dozen deaths.
-
Permalink Reply by Robert Chapman on -
This is horrible! I wish people would keep their cats indoors. My cats have only ever seen the outside world through windows or through the bars or their carriers when they go to the vet once a year. They are only indoor cats. Even Frodo is not outside EVER without me. People can be evil and I trust no one, especially when it comes to my animals. There are some major sickos out there. That's terrible for those poor cats.
-
Permalink Reply by Ariana Afsanay Di Ly on
-
18-Year-Old Arrested in Cat Mutilations
AP
MIAMI (June 14)
Authorities say a teenager has been arrested and accused of committing a series of cat mutilation deaths in his Miami area community.The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office says 18-year-old Tyler Weinman was taken into custody early Sunday. He is charged with 19 counts of animal cruelty, 19 counts of improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary.
State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle says she hopes the residents of the Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay neighborhoods "will feel relieved and their cats will be safe once again."
Prosecutors say Weinman is in police custody. It wasn't clear if he had an attorney yet.
Horrified owners have been finding their cats killed and mutilated for the past month. Investigators have been looking into about two dozen deaths.► Reply to This
-
Permalink Reply by Robert Chapman on
-
May the Gods give him what he deserves.
-
Permalink Reply by Ciara on -
Some christian trying to make satanist and witches look bad again...lol
I say we go skin them.;-)
-
Permalink Reply by Ciara on
-
On the serious side...I have four cats and anyone that harms animals has a special curse they bring upon themselves. They are very sick people
-
Permalink Reply by PamWiccan on -
Found this today as an update:
18-year-old Arrested in
Cat Mutilations
Updated: Monday, 15 Jun 2009, 7:29 AM EDT
Published : Monday, 15 Jun 2009, 7:28 AM EDT
By The Associated Press
MIAMI - A South Florida teenager is under arrest, accused of a string of cat killings and mutilations that horrified residents and animal lovers in two Miami-area communities.
Police say 18-year-old Tyler Hayes Weinman was taken into custody at a party and brought in for questioning at Miami-Dade police headquarters.
Authorities who announced the arrest say "the terror has come to an end."
Weinman was charged with 19 felony counts of animal cruelty, 19 misdemeanor counts of improperly disposing of an animal body and four felony counts of burglary related to the cat deaths. Jail officials say a court date has been set for July.
In the past month, residents in the Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay neighborhoods have reported finding more than two dozen cats killed and mutilated. Police say some of the dead cats were missing fur and appeared to have been cut with a sharp, straight instrument.
Copyright Associated Press, Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
-
Permalink Reply by peace lily on -
Yeah, that was in our paper. And the nasty little punk looks pretty smug and proud of himself. He oughta fry! Studies show teens who mutilate animals move up to children next. I hope they take this seriously before that happens! It just gives me chills. WHY??
-
Permalink Reply by Gabriel Bathory on -
I say rub a raw porkchop on his face and chest,tie his hands behind him and lock him in a room with a hungry cougar, we'll see if the cat forgives him,sick little bastard
Advertisers
Donate/Sponsor Paganspace
Any donations to help with the rising costs of maintaining PaganSpace are always greatly appreciated. Many Blessings to you.
PS Podcast & Radio
Pagan Friendly Podcasts & Radio Show Listings. Join Now or View Show SchedulesCool Sites & Links
![[[ QUEEN ]] Natasha †](http://c2.api.ning.com/files/Ntq8avEf8buBt-9w45ElsIh9iEzuKTGxYqFkuARqEFY9dDwe7La7Lq19o1XJFN0mPNv4aHagMgZXAc*4u163DpCP*yFovES4/NEW01.jpg?width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1){kind=small}
