‘Cat killer’ case comes to prosaic conclusion

LONDON — The fiend was dubbed the “Croydon Cat Killer.” It had a nice ring.

The brute left his — or her — victims scattered alongside the motorways around the capital city, the fringes of remnant woodlands and the gardens of suburban towns.

Police reported signs of “blunt force trauma” — and much, much worse.

It wasn’t enough to kill a beloved tabby. No, the perp often eviscerated the victims.

It was as if the cat killer were an animal. Eating them. Playing with them.

Distraught pet owners found the tails removed. In some cases, so were the heads.

Sometimes, the furry companions were left at the doorsteps of their own homes. Or a school yard.

The bodies were being moved.

For three years, Britain’s Metropolitan Police force has been trying to solve the crimes.

The Telegraph newspaper on Monday called it “one of the most puzzling murder mysteries of the past decade as fearful experts described a serial pet killer who was likely to move on to humans next.”

In a 2017 article, headlined “Jack the Rippurr,” the Sun reported that police were warning that “Croydon Cat Killer is ‘likely to kill humans’ as horrifying attacks on moggies rise.”

The tabloid revealed, “Over 400 pets have been mutilated in exactly the same way — with the monster decapitating them, removing tail and organs, and putting corpses on display.”

A lead investigator on the case, Detective Andy Collins, told reporters at the time that there was a “known link” between serial killers and animal torturers. “The assumption is this killer is getting some form of gratification,” he opined.

The BBC said a psychological profile drawn by the National Crime Agency suggested “the killer’s problem with cats stems from a deeper problem with women, or with one woman in particular.”

The investigators suspected the animal chose cats — versus, say, hedgehogs — because felines are associated with the feminine.

At the peak of the hysteria over the Croydon Cat Killer — named for south London suburb seen as a kind of ground zero for a cluster of serial killings — the police revealed their hotlines were ringing off the hook.

The animal-rights advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of put up a 10,000pound bounty for the killer — and posted a description of a suspect.

“A white man in his 40s with short brown hair, dressed in dark clothing, possibly with acne scarring on his face. They advised that he may be wearing a headlamp or carrying a torch,” the Telegraph stated.

Families of the victims staged memorials and vigils.

Celebrities weighed in. The tabloids, quite naturally, went a little nuts.

So did the respectable BBC, which published a credulous report on the life and death of Scooter, alongside other departed pets. “The cat killer stalking suburbia,” was the headline.

“Police are sure the killer is a man,” the BBC stated, who has not only butchered pets, but “foxes, rabbits and possibly a wild, baby owl.”

The police formed a task force. They gave it a name: Operation Takahe. They performed necropsies. They declined to say how much all this cost.

On Monday, finally, the police announced they had taken another look at those necropsies and had a glimpse at the scientific research on predation. (You might have thought that would have been the first thing they did, three years ago, but it was not.)

“Following a thorough examination of the available evidence, officers working alongside experts have concluded that hundreds of reported cat mutilations in Croydon and elsewhere were not carried out by a human and are likely to be the result of predation or scavenging by wildlife on cats killed in vehicle collisions,” the police admitted.

In other words, imagine this, vehicles struck the free-roaming pets — causing blunt force trauma — and then foxes retrieved the road kill, gnawed off the tails, opened up the bellies and chewed off the heads.

“In three instances where CCTV was obtained, footage showed foxes carrying bodies or body-parts of cats,” police said.

A forensic veterinarian on the task force concluded “the mutilations had been caused by predation and/or scavenging, and highlighted that fox DNA had been found around the wound sites on all five bodies.”

Another vet who earlier examined the dead pets — and imagined the bellies to be sliced open — took another look and found ... puncture marks.

A spokesperson for the South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty (SNARL) organization, whose “real-life pet detectives” drew global media attention to the cat killings, told the Telegraph they were “surprised” the police closed the case — and insisted they had gathered evidence to “indicate human involvement.”