Cat Found Dead In Trash Bag In Charles River In Watertown

WATERTOWN (CBS) - There was disbelief along the Charles River in Watertown Monday night.

"It's horrible, I can't even imagine somebody would do something like that, it's just crazy," one woman said.

She's talking about what a Good Samaritan pulled from water just below the dam along California Street ten days ago, thinking it was trash. It was a garbage bag containing a big rock and a dead cat.

"These cases are very hard to solve," said Watertown Animal Control Officer Karen O'Reilly.

The case features two possible scenarios.

"It could have possibly been someone's old cat that passed away at home and they didn't know what to do," O'Reilly said.

Of course what's behind door number two is much darker.

"The other possibility is that it was put in the river while the cat was still alive and weighed down," O'Reilly said.

If that's what happened it's animal cruelty.

So Officer O'Reilly is asking anyone who saw anything suspicious near the dam on January 30 to give her a call. The cat was starvation skinny with a beautiful tortoise-shell coat.

The Animal Rescue League has agreed to pay for the necropsy which may determine the cause of death. If no witnesses come forward, the case probably won't go much further.