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Case #7013 Rating: 4.8 out of 5
Cat hanged from tree at park
Slatington, PA (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Dec 24, 2005
County: Lehigh
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Kenneth S. Williams, III
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
For two weeks in December, Amy Henry searched for her daughter's 5-year-old cat, nicknamed Cat-Cat, after he got out of their Slatedale home on E. Grant Street and appeared to have run away.
He never ran away, police said.
On the day before Christmas, a family friend spotted an orange cat hanging from a tree at nearby Slatedale Park, but was unsure if it was Cat-Cat. A few days later, Sheryl Hughes told Henry what she saw.
Henry went with Hughes to see if the cat was indeed Cat-Cat on Dec. 30, but the cat wasn't hanging anymore. The next day, Henry returned and found freshly removed dirt underneath the tree.
''I had to dig to make sure it was our cat,'' Henry said. ''I could not believe what I found.''
The dirt barely covered the cat, and Henry said it looked as if ''someone was trying to cover him up quickly.'' There was a rope around the cat's neck.
''I do not know why anyone would do this to a cat,'' said Henry, 29. ''It was heartbreaking.''
Last week, state police in Bethlehem arrested Henry's 19-year-old neighbor, Kenneth S. Williams III, 3924 E. Grant St., and charged him with animal cruelty.
Henry and other residents in the neighborhood, in the Slatedale portion of Washington Township, Lehigh County, were horrified with the outcome of the search for the cat.
According to police, Williams admitted to his friends that he drowned Cat-Cat in a cage at Slatedale Park and then hung him from the tree. One of his friends said he saw Cat-Cat in a cage on Williams' porch, police said.
Henry gave Cat-Cat to her daughter, Destiny, when her daughter was 4. Since discovering Cat-Cat died, Henry got her daughter another cat. Not a replacement, just a new cat.
Roxxy is the complete opposite of Cat-Cat.
Cat-Cat was outgoing and walked around the house and played with the family's two dogs. Roxxy, a black cat, is afraid to go outside, play with dogs and socialize with people and spends most of her time in Destiny's bedroom.
Case UpdatesA 19-year-old Slatedale man who admitted drowning a neighbor's cat and hanging it from a tree has been given two years' probation.
At a hearing last week in Lehigh County Court, Kenneth S. Williams III, of 3924 E. Grant St., pleaded guilty to cruelty to animals.
Judge William E. Ford sentenced Williams to probation and ordered him to do 24 hours of community service. Ford also ordered Williams to undergo therapy as recommended by a probation officer.
In December, the 5-year-old orange-colored feline named Cat-Cat got out of the home of Amy Henry, 3918 E. Grant St. For two weeks, Henry searched for her daughter's pet.
On New Year's Eve, Henry called state police at Bethlehem to report that her cat had been killed.
The previous day, Slatedale resident Sheryl Hughes had told Henry that she had seen a cat hanging from a tree in Slatedale Park. Henry, her boyfriend and Hughes went to the park and did not see the cat.
The next morning, Henry and her boyfriend returned to the park and found the cat, with rope around its neck, buried in the ground. A nearby tree had rope draped around it.
One of Williams' friends, Corey Ziegler of Slatington, told state trooper Eric Dimler that he saw an orange-colored cat inside a cage on Williams' front porch in the middle of December.
Ziegler said Williams later told him that he had drowned the cat in the cage and hung it from a tree, according to an affidavit of probable cause from Williams's arrest.
The friend told Dimler that Williams took him to the park less than a week later to show him the cat. They discovered that the animal had been cut down.
Two other friends of Williams told Dimler that the defendant told them that he had killed a cat. | Source: The Morning Call - April 7, 2006
Update posted on Apr 7, 2006 - 3:01PM |
References« PA State Animal Cruelty Map
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