Hoarding - over 30 dead cats discovered
Hickory Hills, IL (US)Incident Date: Friday, Nov 17, 2006
County: Cook
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Kim Olijar
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
More than 30 dead cats were found by police in a Hickory Hills house that was so foul, veteran officers said the smell almost made them pass out. The homeowner is in police custody.
The homeowner is expected to be charged with animal cruelty. She told police she liked to rescue cats and felt embarrassed to ask for help, when caring for the animals became too overwhelming.
Thirty-five cat carcasses were scattered across the floors of the Hickory Hills home. Police say some of the remains were side by side, leading them to believe, those animals were comforting each other in their final hours.
There are also cat feces everywhere. In one room, it was up to a foot high. There was a dead bird, too.
Those who live in this community, where the house has been condemned, are stunned.
"I think it's terrible. When I read it in the paper, I got real choked up and upset, I mean, that they let the house get that bad," said Hickory Hills resident Del Havel.
A nearly 20-year veteran officer says this is one of the worst cases of animal cruelty he has ever seen. Police say the homeowner was gone for about five or six months.
She would stop by about two times a month to feed the animals. She told police as long as four months ago, there were dead cats in the house.
Police say the smell inside the house defied imagination. Some got physically ill at the scene.
Police discovered the dead cats when going to serve the homeowner a violation for not mowing her lawn.
Case UpdatesA Cook County circuit court judge issued a warrant on Jan 17 for a Hickory Hills woman accused of letting more than 30 cats starve to death in her home.
Judge James O'Malley issued a $50,000 bench warrant for Kim Olijar after the 49-year-old woman failed to show up in court.
Olijar was arrested Nov. 17 and charged with animal cruelty after police responding to a an odor complaint found the skeletal remains of more than 30 cats inside her home at 8408 W. 91st Place.
She appeared in court Dec. 7, when the judge told her to return with an attorney Wednesday.
Olijar never showed.
After her arrest in November, Olijar told police she lived alone with the cats before leaving the animals behind and moving in with her boyfriend in Burbank.
Olijar told police that she used to rescue stray cats.
She said she made monthly visits to the Hickory Hills home to cut the grass and feed the cats.
But then Olijar ran out of money -- and cat food. The cats started dying. And she was too ashamed to ask for help.
More cats died. And more. Those that were alive began to cannibalize the dead. | Source: CBS 2 - Jan 18, 2007
Update posted on Jan 19, 2007 - 5:29PM |
A woman who told police she rescued stray cats was charged Friday with animal cruelty for allowing more than 30 cats to slowly starve to death inside her Hickory Hills home.
Kim Olijar, 49, of 8408 W. 91st Place, was arrested Friday morning at her boyfriend's home in Oak Lawn.
Responding to an odor complaint this week, police discovered a macabre scene inside the home Thursday. Skeletal remains of more than 30 cats littered the home, along with cat feces and urine.
Police said Olijar had lived alone with the cats until she left to live with her boyfriend last summer.
She made monthly visits to Hickory Hills to cut the grass and, initially, to feed the cats. But then she stopped feeding the cats, police Detective Mark Zvokel said.
"There wasn't enough food, and she didn't have enough money," Zvokel said. "That's what she said. And when cats started dying, she was too ashamed to ask for help."
He said he didn't think the woman's boyfriend was aware of the situation.
Police said Olijar admitted some of the cats had been dead since the summer.
She also told police she saw some of the starving cats cannibalizing the dead ones.
City building department officials condemned the home Thursday. Police had to wear hazardous materials suits and gas masks when they searched it.
Olijar posted 10 percent of her $1,000 bail and was released. She is scheduled to appear Dec. 7 in the Cook County Courthouse in Bridgeview on the misdemeanor cruelty charge.
Zvokel said Olijar was "visibly upset and extremely remorseful" when police arrested her.
"She said she loved animals," he said. "She said she used to volunteer as animal rescuer. She knew what she did was wrong." | Source: Daily Southtown - Nov 18, 2006
Update posted on Nov 18, 2006 - 12:07PM |
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