EVERETT, Wash. — A neighborhood is on high alert after a gruesome discovery the remains of dismembered cats.
The remains of five cats have been discovered in North Everett since June.
Now police are advising pet owners to keep cats inside until they find the culprit.
The latest discovery was made just two days ago. It has left everyone with a bad feeling. Coincidentally, there are a number of signs of cats that are missing from this neighborhood.
If the warning from police is heeded, this will become a rare sight in this North Everett neighborhood, a cat sitting outside a house.
"Cat legs," said Danielle Ford, "dismembered legs."
Ford is still disturbed by the grisly discovery outside her home last month.
"Mutilated cat legs off of a cat's body," Ford said as she walked toward the place where it was found. "Kind of in this grass here. And, well my mom saw them on her way to work and then told me about them. And it was just a couple of days after a pair had been found just down the street from here."
The first mutilated cat was found on June 13. Since then, the remains of five cats have been found -- four of them on Rockefeller Avenue alone. A fifth set of cat remains was found Wednesday on nearby Federal Avenue.
In a telephone interview, Everett's Deputy Police Chief says a necropsy revealed the culprit is probably not another animal.
"There're several concerns," said Deputy Chief John De Rousse. "One is it's a crime. Then on top of that, the natural next concern is if it is a human that's doing this, the concern would be what is this person capable of."
After seeing cat remains on their block, too, this couple is thinking of moving.
"I mean you can take some level of petty crime but that's sick," said Anthony Diaz, "to know somebody's out there doing that. That's sick. That's what makes me like want to get out of here."
Everett Police are asking if anyone else has seen other cat remains.
Police provided the following dates and locations of the discoveries:
- June 13 in the 2200 block of Rockefeller Avenue.
- July 13 in the 3300 block of Rockefeller Avenue.
- July 15 in the 3300 block of Rockefeller Avenue.
- July 27 in the 2200 block Rockefeller Avenue.
- Aug. 7 in the 3600 block of Federal Avenue.
Anyone with information on the mutilations is asked to call the department's tip line at (425) 257-8450.
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