A years-long search for a serial cat killer has found unexpected culprits. Amy Held reports London Police Outfoxed, Abandon 3-Year Search For Serial Cat Killer:
It was a damp and dreary November nearly three years ago, when the London Metropolitan Police decided it was time to act. People kept calling with reports of grisly findings: mutilated cats, some with their heads and tails removed in and around the borough of Croydon.
Not much else was known and yet residents, abetted by a breathless media, speculated about a U.K. Cat Killer on the loose, wondering what or whom might next fall victim to the Slaughter In Suburbia.
….
On Thursday, Scotland Yard revealed the conclusion in a near-three-year-long investigation determined the likely culprit to be foxes and other wildlife.
“There is no direct evidence of human involvement,” police said. “There were no witnesses, no identifiable patterns and no forensic leads that pointed to human involvement.”
The foxes, however, were not so sly.
In at least three instances, the foxes were caught red-handed on security video. A check of the footage revealed the foxes scurrying away, cat parts in their mouths.
In other cases, humans did play a part — or at least, their cars did.
Police said some of the cats were roadkill, before likely falling prey to animal scavengers.
“Wildlife is known to scavenge on road-kill, often removing the heads and tails of dead animals,” police said.