London -
Their bodies would be left on a doorstep or discarded in an alley, or they would turn up in a garden, with hallmark signs of sadistic brutality: Decapitated, with their tails and ears cut off, stomachs slashed and organs removed, the tortured remains sometimes drained of blood.
For a while, people in Croydon, a large town in south London where the killings were first reported, assumed that the killer was only targeting cats.
But in recent months - as the grisly mutilations have increased in frequency and the owners began to share their horrific stories on Facebook - authorities have become convinced that a deranged individual is also preying upon foxes, birds, rabbits and puppies in multiple communities across London, according to a statement posted on Facebook by a small charity called the South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty.
Investigators believe there is a serial animal killer at work - that the deaths are the work of single individual who has been dubbed the “Croydon Cat Ripper” or “Croydon Cat Killer,” according to the Guardian.
The killings have become so frequent, and the pressure for action so great, that Scotland Yard began investigating the killings in January, according to the Independent.
Perhaps most troubling, authorities say, is the sense that the killer is trying to send some sort of message.
“It looks like the killer takes them away and does what he does, then puts the cat back where he finds them,” Tony Jenkins, co-founder of SNARL, told the paper.
“It is often right on people's doorsteps or driveways. The killer clearly wants the dead animals found.”
“This isn't someone coming home and kicking the dog because they're frustrated at work,” he added.
“This is very deliberate. It's an attack on people as well. Some people have been completely violated by the whole thing.”
In an email penned on behalf of PETA and sent to police, British actor Martin Clunes called the killings “the stuff of nightmares.”
“The local community is understandably distraught and frightened,” he wrote, according to the Croydon Guardian.
“No one feels safe while this sick individual is on the loose.”
Estimates about the exact number of victims vary considerably, ranging from 50 to around 150.
What authorities are certain of is that the killer's hunting grounds are expanding.
“People still think it's only happening in Croydon and it's not,” the other SNARL founder, Boudicca Rising, told the Guardian.
“We've had attacks from Luton all the way down to Surrey across to Farnborough, Richmond, Finchley, Stepney - basically pretty much within the M25 and outside of it. People said they would have kept their cats indoors if they had known it went beyond Croydon.”
“We've got so used to seeing the injuries now that we rarely make a mistake,” she added.
“They are mostly bodies with the heads, or heads and tails, removed.”
The large swath of territory covered by the killer has led some to wonder in the press whether the individual is a delivery or taxi driver or someone whose job requires regular travel.
They are also, it would seem, someone who has enough time on their hands to carry out attacks.
During one particularly violent stretch in February, four slaughtered cats were discovered in three days, according to SNARL.
The Guardian reported that SNARL's veterinarians have examined the bodies of eight mutilated cats and are conducting postmortems on 12 others.
The organisation told the newspaper that it is reviewing another 80 to 100 reports of animal deaths to determine whether they're linked to the killing spree.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is investigating an additional 20 cases, the Guardian reported.
The organisation reported that postmortem tests have revealed that the animals died from “blunt force trauma” that was “likely consistent with being hit by a moving vehicle,” according to the paper.
Jenkins told the Guardian that some of the cats have been found with undigested chicken in their stomachs, suggesting that they were baited by the killer. He said the cause of death shouldn't be limited to moving vehicles.
“Blunt force trauma doesn't necessarily mean the animal was hit by a car,” he said. Jenkins.
“Blunt force trauma could be a baseball bat or a kick.”
Others have speculated that the killer is killing his victims by throwing them against a wall.
Earlier this year, PETA announced that it was offering a reward, worth more than $7 000, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator.
“It's imperative that any community faced with such sadistic and violent acts take measures to find the culprit and bring him or her to justice,” PETA Associate Director Elisa Allen said in a statement.
“Animal abusers are a danger to everyone - they take their issues out on whoever is available to them, human or non-human, and must be caught before they act again.”
“History shows that past incidents involving cruelty to animals regularly appear in the records of serial rapists and murderers.”
@peterjholley
Washington Post