Online postings led police to suspect in cat killings
BY JOSE PAGLIERY, ANDREA ASUAJE AND ROBERT SAMUELS
Online postings led police to suspect in cat killings - South Florida - MiamiHerald.com
The teenager accused of mutilating more than a dozen cats in South Miami-Dade was not the reserved yet rabid killer some expected. He was a dog-loving class clown, a swim class instructor, an 18-year-old who grew up before the eyes of the four-legged victims' families.
He appeared to be appalled by the horrific killings, and joined the Facebook group ``Catch the Cat Killer!''
Police said they were not fooled. They said Tyler Hayes Weinman's social networking led them to him. Sunday, Weinman was arrested in connection with 19 gruesome cat-killings.
The former Miami Palmetto Senior High School student split his time between divorced parents who lived in Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay, the communities where the killings took place. Police, working with tips gathered from the community and reading his Facebook and MySpace pages, kept Weinman under surveillance for weeks.
Saturday night, he went to a party at the home of Kevin Corona in Coral Gables. Around midnight, investigators thoroughly searched his mother's house. Around 12:30 a.m., two men in plain shirts and jeans walked into Corona's house and asked for Weinman. Then, they quietly walked him outside.
''Enjoy the party,'' Corona recalled one of them saying. The men turned out to be undercover cops.
At 1:23 p.m. Sunday, Weinman was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, with bail set at $154,500.
When it came time to take his mug shot, the clean-cut Weinman flashed a half-smile.
He was charged with 19 counts of felony animal cruelty, 19 counts of improperly disposing of an animal body and four counts of burglary. Each of the felony counts carries a minimum mandatory fine of $5,000, six months in prison and psychological counseling.
Weinman's attorney, David Macey, said his client is innocent. His parents, Alba and Douglas, could not be reached Sunday for comment.
Politicians and law enforcement agents had harsh words about the suspect.
Miami-Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson, who represents the area, called him ``twisted and depraved, somehow really not right as a human being.''
''Thankfully, for this community,'' Sorenson said, ``the terror has come to an end.''
Palmetto Bay Mayor Eugene Flinn said a motive is hard to fathom: ``No one here can get in the head of a person capable of such a heinous act.''
Left unexplained are 15 other cat deaths in the area that police have not tied to Weinman. Some or all of those cats may have been killed by dogs, authorities said.
Miami-Dade Police Maj. Julie Miller said the investigation was continuing and that it could stretch into other jurisdictions.
Police said Weinman sliced open some of the cats' bellies and gutted them, and often threw the carcasses onto their owners' front yards.
In the first known case on May 10 -- Mother's Day -- two cats were sliced open and left on a front yard. One of the animals was ''posed'' for shock effect, according to a police report.
CRUEL ACTS
For more than a month after that, gutted cats with crushed skulls appeared on owners' lawns in Palmetto Bay and Cutler Bay. In most cases, there was no blood near the carcass, leading some to believe they were killed elsewhere and then dumped.
''These awful scenes inflicted a great human toll,'' said Cutler Bay Mayor Paul Vrooman.
Such cruelty has perplexed Weinman's friends, who say he always behaved lovingly toward their pets. He sometimes worked as a counselor at the Swim Gym Aquatic Summer Camp in Key Biscayne and was known for his comedic classroom antics.
Kathy Hernandez, who has known Weinman since he attended Southwood Middle School, described him as a caring and sweet boy who often played with his dog. She said she thinks they have the wrong guy.
Hernandez said Weinman had a healthy relationship with his stepmother -- who married his father last year and who neighbors described as a cat-lover.
''He was always so nice to my animals,'' Hernandez wrote in an e-mail to The Miami Herald. ``I have three cats and they loved him.''
The teen knew well the streets that police think he targeted. Weinman's father is a dentist and lives in Palmetto Bay. His mother is a life coach and lives in the Whispering Pines neighborhood in Cutler Bay, where the killings began. They divorced in 2006, according to civil county records.
The teen came under police scrutiny a few weeks ago. Police would not say what type of Facebook or MySpace posting he made that led them to him, or whether someone else pointed them toward him.
POLICE QUESTIONING
Police questioned him the night of the Palmetto Senior High prom. A spokesman for Miami-Dade schools said Weinman had not graduated from the school. Court records show that Weinman was also arrested May 29 for possession of cannabis.
Police said he had been arrested twice as a juvenile. They would not specify the charges.
In the days before his arrest, several area residents spoke of someone fitting Weinman's situation at a community meeting about the killings. They spoke of a teen who lived between his parents' homes in both towns, which would allow him to attack cats in both neighborhoods. Neighbors and animal-advocacy groups offered a $10,000 reward through the Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers program.
In early May, at least four cats were mutilated down the street from his mother's home on Ridgeland Drive. The northernmost killings occurred about a half-mile west of his father's home, where a sticker on a window near the front door said, ``In case of fire, please rescue cat.''
Sunday morning, Barbara Wiesinger of Cutler Bay learned that the teen who lived so close to her was accused of butchering her cat.
Wiesinger's calico cat, Cami, is believed to be among the early victims. Found in a neighbor's yard on May 13, her eyes had been gouged out and her snout cut off.
`IT'S JUST SICK'
Weinman's arrest came as a relief, Wiesinger said, but she thinks more than one person had to have been involved.
''I think the whole thing is a big tragedy,'' she said. ``It's just sick.''
Marie Akers of Cutler Bay, whose oldest daughter found the first two mutilated cats, said the neighborhood once again is safe for pets and families alike.
''Your kids can actually go outside,'' said Akers, whose cat was unharmed.
Akers said she was surprised a kid from the neighborhood committed the killings.
Still, she said, Weinman should receive a stiff sentence for what he did to his feline victims. ''I'm glad he's 18, because now he can be tried as an adult,'' she said. ``If he's in prison for life, that would suit me just fine.''
