Florida teen charged in string of cat killings

The answer to mysterious cat killings that horrified pet owners and disturbed residents of two South Florida communities for months was not far away from where the animals' mutilated bodies were discovered, authorities say.

In some cases, investigators said the suspect was just a few houses away.

Tyler Hayes Weinman, whose divorced parents live in the neighborhoods where many of the cats were killed, was charged Sunday with 19 counts each of animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body.

"It's shocking to think that someone who lives right here and is our neighbor would do something like this," said Thomas Shad, a Cutler Bay resident whose black cat, Miss Kitty, was among the dead. The body of the small feral cat — which Shad and his wife, Mary Lou, had fed and cared for about a year — was found behind an abandoned house, near the hedges where she slept.