PANAMA CITY BEACH — Deputies suspect wild animals are killing the house cats of an upscale neighborhood, but people who have seen the corpses believe the pets are being killed by people.
Deputies are investigating the death of Skeeter after Bay Point security reported finding half the cat’s body in a road. The corpse had been disposed of by the time a deputy responded to the report, but a security guard showed him photos.
“The cat appeared to be cut in the center and the head was missing,” the deputy wrote in a report.
Skeeter is the only dead cat that has been reported to the sheriff’s office, spokeswoman Ruth Corley said Tuesday. Investigators have photos of the corpse but not the corpse itself, which makes it difficult to determine whether the cat was killed by another animal or a human, Corley said.
Two veterinarians have seen the pictures and said they suspect the cat was killed by a fox or a coyote, both of which are not uncommon in the neighborhood, Corley said, but without the body the vets won’t make an official determination.
“He’s a sly fox then,” Sandi Hasek, Skeeter’s owner, said Tuesday. “He kept my cat for two weeks before he killed him.”
Skeeter disappeared almost three weeks before they found the body, Hasek said. At first she figured another animal had killed Skeeter, but now she believes the cat was killed intentionally by a human.
Hasek said her husband, a physician, took a look at Skeeter’s body and didn’t find any of the puncture wounds, bite marks or scratches that would be expected. Hasek said she believes the cat was killed recently with a big knife, disemboweled, and the corpse was purposely discarded where neighbors would find it. Skeeter’s head was found the next day in a different area of the neighborhood.
Hasek voiced her concerns on television news Monday night. By Tuesday afternoon, she said, she had received phone calls from six neighbors with missing cats.
“We’re assuming the same thing has happened to him,” Katherine Dennis said. “It’s just a mystery. I have no proof other than my cat is missing.”
It’s been nearly three weeks now since Dennis’ cat Sam went missing. Rumors had been swirling for about a month, ever since Ray Spock, another Bay Point resident, found half a cat at the end of his driveway.
“Sandi just verified it,” Dennis said. “I had already heard the stories” by the time Sam disappeared.
The cat, Spock said, appeared to have been chopped in two and gutted. His driveway is a low spot in the area; stormwater runoff and the debris it catches collects there, and because of the heavy rain at the time the cat might have washed up there he said.
Or it could have been thrown there. Spock is confident about this though: the only kind of animal that could’ve caused those wounds has opposable thumbs and the ability to use a knife.
Spock said a neighbor suggested a coyote had killed it.
“It doesn’t look like a coyote to me,” he said.
If cat parts continue to turn up in Bay Point, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office wants to know about it, Corley said. If the cats are being killed it’s a crime and the corpses are evidence, so investigators would want to see it, she said. Corley was aware of some of the rumors and she said evidence might “put some of these fears to rest.”
Until then, several Bay Point residents are concerned and suspicious.
“There’s some sick kid — or someone — in the neighborhood doing this,” Dennis said. “It’s a sadistic act.”