Woman Found Dead Amid 130 Cats

BELEN, N.M. (AP) â€” Investigators responding to complaints of foul odors at a home found the body of an elderly woman and more than 130 cats, most of them dead as well. <br><br>Authorities said the woman,

Thursday, October 5th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BELEN, N.M. (AP) â€” Investigators responding to complaints of foul odors at a home found the body of an elderly woman and more than 130 cats, most of them dead as well.

Authorities said the woman, Kathleen Morgan, 84, appeared to have died of heart failure last week. They said she lived alone in the five-room home, about 30 miles south of Albuquerque.

A sheriff's deputy made the discovery Friday after neighbors reported a foul odor coming from the house. The deputy saw the woman's body on the floor while looking through a window.

``He forced entry (into the home) and the odor almost sent him to his knees,'' county Fire Marshal John Cherry was quoted in Thursday's Albuquerque Journal.

Cherry said most of the cats were dead and in various stages of decomposition: ``We found them in the house, in the garage, in the yard. We found (cat) skeletons and bones and pelts.''

The surviving animals were euthanized as a precaution against the spread of disease.