Suspect skinned cats (Illustration)
Photo: Gabi Menashe
Hundreds tortured (Illustration)
Photo: Courtesy of Let the Animals Live
Murder suspect allegedly kills hundreds of cats
Police remove gag order on double murder investigation; suspect believed to have tortured, killed hundreds of cats
Over 500 cat carcasses and skins were found in the apartment of a murder suspect in central Israel. A gag order on the case was removed Thursday.
Rostislas Bugoslavsky, an 18-year-old from Petach Tikva, has been arrested for allegedly committing two murders, an attempted murder and killing approximately 500 stray cats.
The suspect initially denied the allegations; however, the police investigation team has gathered evidence linking him to the crimes.
The investigation began in March, when a 68-year-old man was stabbed in the neck and left to bleed to death. A prior, similar attack that wounded a 32-year-old, gave rise to the possibility that this was the doing of a serial killer and a gag order was put on the investigation.
After another body, with signs of violence, turned up in April, information indicting Bugoslavsky was received and he was arrested.
Police sent to search his apartment were horrified to find, along with a large supply of knives, hundreds of cat carcasses and skins. The investigation revealed that he had tortured the cats, killed them, skinned them and even planned to eat their meat.
He explained that he hated street cats and he was doing the work of the municipality. He added that he owned two pets, a cat and a dog, that he loved very much.
Bugoslavsky was sent for a 15-day psychiatric examination.
During the observation period he appealed to the court to have the handcuffs, footcuffs and heavy police supervision removed. The court accepted the police assertion that he was suspected of committing heinous crimes and rejected his appeal.
On Tuesday, his psychiatric evaluation was concluded, and he was found fit to stand trial.
