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2 Cats Found Decapitated In Pemberton Township

By Todd Quinones

PEMBERTON Twp., N.J., (CBS) -- It is a shocking case of animal cruelty that has left neighbors stunned. The woman who found the dead cats in her driveway says she's been having trouble sleeping ever since the animals were discovered.

Both black cats were decapitated and their bodies mutilated.

Their remains were placed in the driveway of a woman's home on North Lakeshore Drive in Browns Mills, Pemberton Township.

"We've got cats, I mean just the thought of someone taking your pet and doing that is awful. Now I want to keep them all in the house," neighbor Susan Schindler said.

Neighbors, as well as the Burlington County SPCA, are struggling to comprehend why someone would do this.

"Nobody has reported any cats missing. The person who found the cats says she could not identify them because the heads were missing," Burlington County SPCA Chief Richard Forberg said.

Authorities are trying to figure out a motive. One possibility is whoever mutilated these cats was trying to send some kind of demented message.

The SPCA indicated the woman who found the cats has a reputation for caring for strays, and the suspect may be trying to scare her to get her to stop feeding them.

The woman who is too frightened to speak on camera told me she just wants whoever decapitated the two cats to stop.

"She has reported over the last two months the strays have been disappearing," Forberg said.

There were no blood trails found near the remains when they were discovered just before 9 a.m. Friday morning, so the SPCA believes they were not killed there and their remains were placed in the driveway.

Authorities are also looking into the possibility the beheadings were a part of some kind of satanic ritual.

"Something is not right in a person's head that would do something like that," neighbor Ernie Wyatt said.

As investigators try to figure out who did this and why, they say it wouldn't be a bad idea for people with pets to keep a close eye on them.

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