BURKE, Va. - Neighbors who had wondered what that stench was from another town house spent Thursday coming to grips with the answer. Police said the odor was that of more than 100 dead cats, plus nearly 50 more live ones, being kept by an elderly woman.
That same woman was arrested earlier this week after authorities removed more than 270 cats, both alive and dead, from another of her homes in the county's Mount Vernon section.
Ruth Knueven, 82, already faces charges including cruelty to animals and obstruction of justice for the July 8 discovery in Mount Vernon. Police said Thursday they are deciding whether to level additional charges against Knueven after finding 134 dead cats and 47 living ones in a Burke home belonging to her family.
"All of these cats had respiratory disease and there were feces and urine all around the house," said Officer Richard Henry, a Fairfax County police spokesman. He said all the cats found alive in both homes had to be euthanized.
Neighbors in the quiet Burke community on Lakepointe Drive said they had noticed foul smells coming out of the town house, but didn't know what was causing them until police arrived. They said they had seen Knueven hauling heavy garbage bags that they now presume were filled with dead cats.
"Who would've ever thought that they were cats — dead cats — in those bags," said neighbor Nancy Fields. Fields said she had to burn incense in her basement and scour its walls with disinfectant because of the stench coming from next door.
Conditions in the houses did not endanger neighbors and their homes, said John Yetman of the Fairfax County Health Department.
Knueven and her family have been living in a hotel since Friday, when health officials declared her Mount Vernon home unfit for human habitation.
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