Posted on 11/08/2002 2:08:52 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
A Cedar Crest man mutilated and burned his beloved house cats and sprayed insecticide on a female friend because he thought they were shapeshifters.
Christopher Campbell, 42 told authorities that he believed his cats were shape shifters, mythical creatures who can change form, and that they were trying to kill him.
Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies arrested Campbell Wednesday, and say they've visited his house many times in the last few months, often for drug-related incidents.
"His behavior's been more repetitive, increasingly more violent and more outlandish," said Sgt. John McCauley.
Deputies found the cats in the garage, mutilated and burned, laid side by side in tire rims.
While deputies checked out the house, neighbors reported seeing a naked man running down the road. Campbell later slipped back into his house; sheriff's deputies found him naked in the closet of the back bedroom.
"He obviously needs some help for his mental issues, his drug problems, and he of course needs to answer for the crimes he committed," said McCauley.
Sheriff's deputies were called to the house a week earlier when a semi-nude woman ran screaming and crying to a neighbor's home.
Neighbor Bob Sturgeon says he and his wife put a bathrobe on the 25-year-old Shawntell Waites.
She eventually wanted a weapon to protect herself and demanded a knife from another neighbor.
"So she went in her shed and got a bow saw and some weed cutters, and I took them away from her," said Sturgeon.
Campbell told deputies he and Waites had been smoking crack cocaine earlier in the day.
He told deputies he became concerned when a shape shifter took over Waites' body, so he locked her in his laundry room and smashed the window with a fire poker "to keep an eye on her."
Campbell said he sprayed Waites with insecticide in an attempt to get her to jump out the window and leave.
He's being held with $100,000 bond at the Bernalillo County Detention center.
Conditions for his release also include taking all prescription medications and keeping appointments with doctors and psychologists. Deputies say his parents came from their home in Florida about three days ago to check on their son.
They told officers they went to Campbell's his home to find butter smeared on the doorknobs and jars of honey and jam dumped on the front and back porches. He had placed barbed wire and cacti around the house as a security measure.
When Campbell's parent's couldn't find him and saw his cats were dead, they feared he may have committed suicide. They told deputies they don't believe their son should be in jail, but in drug and mental health treatment.
They say New Mexico has limited treatment, and they would like for him to get help closer to their home in Florida.
Sigh...this thread will be full of libertarians any second now.
Double sigh...and people who think animal abuse is funny.
And who hasn't had to deal with shapeshifters from time to time? At least they're less intrusive than Smurfs.
Yes. Don't forget the cats. I wonder if anyone thought that Sox was a shape shifter?
He may be coming to the right place. Last week, in my part of Florida, a resident of a group home for the mentally ill cut the tail off the house cat and, as he was being taken back to a more secure facility, informed the deputies that he had eaten the tail.
His roommate at the home said he attacked the cat because he believed it was stealing his mail.
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