ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Editor's Note: What you hear and see in the story may be disturbing, viewer discretion is advised.
A Rock Island neighborhood is in shock after a family found their pet cat gutted and skinned just a few hundred feet away from their home. Milo the cat was a stray that showed up at Steve Havercamp's family home back in 2017.
The animal quickly became the new family cat. Milo had all of his vaccines, was chipped and wore an Apple AirTag and Tile tag. Apple tags can be tracked from about 100 feet away while Tile tags can be tracked about 450 feet away.
The pet typically came and went from the house throughout the day, always coming back about once an hour according to Havercamp.
"Weirdly, at 11 p.m., I got a ping from the tile tracker indicating it was nearby, within 450 feet. I went out to call him and tried to locate him, but couldn't find him," Havercamp said. "I thought that was a little bit weird, but maybe he had wandered off again. That's very unusual for him."
The next morning Havercamp went back outside to track the tile again, which lead him into a neighbor's yard just down the road. It was there he found Milo.
"It clearly had been done by a human because of the cuts which had been made to his body. He had been cleaned like a deer or rabbit, skinned. His pelt was completely missing," Havercamp said. "There was no blood at the scene and his kidneys had been removed, surgically removed, and placed by the body which was the only organ on site."
Havercamp immediately called animal control. When they showed up, the animal control officer confirmed for Havercamp that the killing had been done by a person, not an animal. That officer said it was the worse thing they had seen in their 30 years in the business.
"If an animal takes another animal as prey or finds it dead, they scavenge it, which means that they pull things apart. They don't have the dexterity or ability to remove kidneys and place them by the body. Moreover, they don't have the ability to kill it, gut it someplace else, and bring it to another location," Havercamp said.
Animal control immediately called the Rock Island Police Department. Officers came out to investigate, with a detective now working the case. The police department is using security camera footage from nearby homes to possibly identify the person responsible.
"The two officers who followed up also concluded immediately that it was done by a human and that there are concerns obviously," Havercamp said. "And the concern is the type of individual who engages in the sick behavior is the type of person who doesn't stop unless he's stopped. And the worst thing about that is they tend to gravitate towards more grotesque crimes, including humans."
Havercamp says his nearby neighbors have been very supportive in the matter, offering up any information they have as well as security footage.
"They have reached out and they continue to show support and a commitment to try and find the person who did this because that person who did it is unlike the other people in this neighborhood," Havercamp said.
He has also been passing out posters with information on Milo, as well as information on a reward. Right now, the family is offering $2,000 for the arrest of the guilty party.
A GoFundMe has also been set up by local nonprofit King's Harvest to help assist with raising money for a reward.
"It is collecting donations that will be used as a reward to be paid to anybody who comes forward and assists the police in locating and convicting the sick person who did this. In the event that the person isn't caught, those funds will go directly to King's Harvest," Havercamp said.