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Modern Mysteries

'Croydon cat killer' mystery has been solved

By T.K. Randall
September 20, 2018 · Comment icon 19 comments

Was there ever actually a 'cat killer' ? Image Credit: sxc.hu
Police in London have reached the end of their investigation in to the deaths of hundreds of pet cats.
The alarm was first raised about the so-called 'Croydon cat killer' back in 2015 when residents in the South London borough started finding the mutilated bodies of pet cats in the area.

A later post-mortem of the bodies suggested that at least 25 of the felines had been killed by people and 6 others had died under suspicious circumstances.

Hundreds more cases turned up over the following months, leaving investigators struggling to determine who or what might be responsible.

Now though, 3 years on from the opening of the case, the Metropolitan Police has revealed that there never actually was a Croydon cat killer at all. Instead, investigators have attributed the cat deaths to attacks by foxes, road accidents and other mundane things.
"No evidence of human involvement was found in any of the reported cases," the Met stated. "There were no witnesses, no identifiable patterns and no forensic leads that pointed to human involvement. Witness statements were taken, but no suspect was identified."

The mutilated nature of the remains has been attributed to scavenging animals.

"Officers also took note of expert opinion - including a recent, widely reported New Scientist article - which highlights how wildlife is known to scavenge on roadkill, often removing the heads and tails of dead animals," the police said.

In addition, the earlier findings about human involvement seem to have been thrown out.

"Additional forensic tests were carried out, and these did not show any clear difference between marks on the bodies of cats that had been scavenged and the cats whose mutilations had been deemed suspicious," the Met said.

Source: Independent | Comments (19)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #10 Posted by Katzenking 6 years ago
The same here! What a disgrace.
Comment icon #11 Posted by Black Monk 6 years ago
Not necessarily. Numpties often report bizarre things to the police that definitely should not be investigated at all.
Comment icon #12 Posted by hetrodoxly 6 years ago
They remove heads from lambs in this manner, sometimes they remove the front feet and nose the reason is they're doing it as the lamb is being born.
Comment icon #13 Posted by Black Monk 6 years ago
Thousands of police manpower hours have been wasted, countless articles have been written, and many online documentaries have been made, over what turned out to be hysteria. No evidence has ever been presented to suggest that a killer was to blame. There was no CCTV, no DNA and no credible eyewitnesses to the killings. All the police ever had to go on was one vague deion, offered by two people to the local press, describing ‘a white man in his forties with short brown hair, dressed in dark clothing, possibly with acne scarring to his face’. (I could go down to my local pub tonight and find... [More]
Comment icon #14 Posted by Black Monk 6 years ago
Had the Blair Administration not banned fox hunting these people's cats may well still be alive.
Comment icon #15 Posted by Jon the frog 6 years ago
Just keeping the cat on a leash or inside keep them alive a lot longer. Seen a owl catching one and it was a good show.
Comment icon #16 Posted by UFOwatcher 6 years ago
I have no opinion on these reports but they have NOT "solved" the mystery. It's still speculation.
Comment icon #17 Posted by aztek 6 years ago
weren't they able to see from wounds that it was not a human??  i mean it is not that heard to see a difference between teeth marks, and knife\gun\club...... something that people use to kill
Comment icon #18 Posted by Bash_ 6 years ago
So the police and vetenarians have been investigating this on a period of 3 years... If the case was as simple as recognizing scavenger marks, why would it take authorities so long to conclude? Why doesn’t the news organization investigate for themselves instead of repeating the police’s report?  Can’t they give us some  the details seen by the victims and the vetenarians? Well the only people digging around are local news, and paranormal investigators! http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/potters-bar-woman-speaks-out-following-croydon-cat-killer-conclu-1-5704427  
Comment icon #19 Posted by Bash_ 6 years ago
Well just for your information, the vetenarians dispute it. I don’t get why your so 100% convinced it’s foxes, when the police and vetenarians have been baffled by the case for 3 years, and that the media as made little to no effort to report any details of the investigation... “In one mutilated cat case, there was a beheading. It was surgical. The wounds were symmetrical and looked as if they had been done with a scalpel.” – Dane Walker, Clinical Director, Streatham Hill Vets, South London, U. K., Sept. 23, 2018


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