Elizabeth Davidson stalks killers.
Successful hunts are elusive and will never land murder convictions. But Davidson believes her work has life-saving potential.
"If they don't get caught, it will escalate," she said.
A humane police officer with the Fayette Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Davidson deals with an ever-growing file of cold cases.
In the past few months, she has not been able to solve three deaths, including one that might be the work of a serial killer.
They include:
• The shooting and disembowelment of a cat whose carcass was later hung from a street sign in Dunbar Township.
• The fatal bludgeoning of a dog that was dumped -- along with two others --- at an abandoned school in South Union.
• The hanging of a pet cat from an electrical conduit at a public housing complex in Brownsville.
Clues gone cold
Like all humane agents, Davidson is forced to investigate slayings where the clues have gone cold.
Humane agents work to solve cold-case animal killings in much the same manner as police investigating unsolved homicides -- but with fewer resources.
Investigative tools include necropsies, which are similar to autopsies, and veterinary forensics, which are akin to crime-scene techniques popularized by TV shows such as "CSI."
Both options are costly, limiting their usefulness, Davidson said.
In the Dunbar case, Davidson and fellow humane agent Jamie Speelman collected a pair of surgeon's gloves the perpetrator apparently discarded. The gloves were preserved for evidence, but they have yet to be tested for fingerprints or DNA.
They determined that the perpetrator likely stood on a vehicle to tie off the rope. They searched for tread marks, but found nothing definitive.
Davidson said the hanging was done between 8 and 10 a.m. along well-traveled Barron Road, meaning the perpetrator likely lives nearby, or studied the spot before acting.
The agents took photographs to document the care taken to display the kill.
The crime was "well planned," Davidson said. "This guy went to such lengths. You didn't just shoot the cat. You hung it up, disemboweled it, and tied its feet to make sure it wouldn't dangle."
If the case remains unsolved, Davidson fears the killer might one day move on to human victims.
"You could just see this person practicing on a cat, and saying, I got away with this, and then moving on to women or children or whatever his sickness might be," Davidson said. "I'm disturbed it was a cat now, and it might be people tomorrow."
Numerous studies have established a link between animal abuse in childhood and violent behavior toward humans, said Dr. Diane T. Marsh, a psychology professor at the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg. Often, it is considered a red flag indicator of the risk for violent behavior.
Another case under investigation in Fayette is that of three dead dogs found dumped -- along with the carcasses of numerous wild animals -- at an abandoned schoolhouse on Poplar Lane in South Union.
A necropsy was performed on the third dog because agents believe the killings are the work of the same person.
It is likely the dog was struck with a baseball bat or other blunt object. If the dog had been struck by a car, it would have sustained trauma to its nails and pads as it braced for impact.
"With any kind of cat or dogs, the nail beds are sliced to pieces," Davidson said. "This dog had nothing like that."
Working against time
Time works against humane agents when it comes to unsolved animal killings.
While police have unlimited time to press charges in homicides, humane agents have two years to identify and prosecute perpetrators before the statute of limitations runs out, said Ron Smith, a humane agent with the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society in Allegheny County.
Smith recalled a particularly gruesome case in Lawrenceville in which agents could not identify a suspect before the time limit expired. A dog was found beheaded in its own backyard.
"We canvassed the neighborhood. We got the media involved and we posted reward signs throughout the neighborhood," Smith said. "There was a lot of publicity surrounding that case, but we never got enough information to make an arrest."
Often, the most powerful tool available for solving cases is a monetary reward, said Dale Bartlett, deputy manager for animal cruelty issues with the Humane Society of the United States.
That's why the national agency has put up $2,500 toward information leading to the identification and prosecution of whoever hanged the cat in another unsolved case in Fayette County, Bartlett said.
Queenie, a long-haired black cat, recently had given birth to four kittens. She was the pet of a 9-year-old girl.
Queenie slipped unnoticed out of her South Hills Terrace apartment in Brownsville, only to be discovered hanged to death from a conduit near a second-story window.
Blood and fur discovered on the side of the building indicated the cat was alive when it was hanged, and may have struggled for some time before succumbing.
"A lot of times, these criminals don't have a lot of friends who wouldn't turn them in for $2,500," Bartlett said. "Another problem, because these are dangerous people, people are afraid to come forward because if the perpetrator knows who told on them, they fear retribution. One way to ease their discomfort is to put a couple thousand dollars in front of them."
Rewards don't always work. In Westmoreland County, a $2,000 reward leading to the identification and prosecution of whoever beat, starved and shot to death two English setters produced no leads.
"It was very, very disheartening," said Lynn Sphon, of Action for Animals, a Derry agency that investigated the January incident. "It's just very, very sad that we'll never know what happened to those dogs."
Davidson hopes the Fayette investigations result in prosecutions. She wants justice not only for the animals, but also psychological help for the perpetrators -- especially in the Dunbar case.
"There was so much hate in it," Davidson said. "I want them caught, so they can get the help they need now."
Larger text
Smaller text
Print this article
E-mail this article
