For about three years, London police said there was a “serial cat killer” loose in the city’s Croydon district. Police received as many as 400 reports of seemingly violent animal deaths.
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They investigated, even going as far as to offer a reward for any information. The so-called Croydon Cat Killer mystery took on a life of its own, with Reddit users plotting conspiracy theories about the deaths.
Necropsies on 25 cats found mutilated, often with heads and tails removed, showed no evidence of “human involvement.”
They had died from blunt force trauma, consistent with being run over by vehicles. The mutilation was likely the result of scavenging by wildlife such as foxes.
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All the cases reported will now be concluded as “no crime,” police said.
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They added that “there were no witnesses, no identifiable patterns and no forensic leads that pointed to human involvement” in any of the cases.
The long investigation created extra workload for London officers, according to BBC News. Each case was probed individually with consultations from animal rescue groups and other experts.
While police have concluded their investigation, one of the groups involved released a statement skeptical of the results.
“We consider that the evidence we have gathered over the last three years does indicate human involvement and there is expert opinion to back this up,” the group wrote on Facebook.
The animal advocacy group said they are seeking advice on how to move forward, and will first reach out to families affected by the feline deaths.