The New Crime Scene: Don't F*ck With Cats Joins CC20 Lineup

In late 2019, Netflix shook the true crime community with its acclaimed docuseries Don’t F*ck With Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer. If the title alone caused a stir, then the show itself caused a hurricane. As one reviewer put it, “Come for the title, stay for the crazy.”

The content is, indeed, crazy and difficult to watch. The docuseries covers the case of aspiring model Luka Magnotta. The Canadian man anonymously uploaded a graphic video in which he - I’ll spare you the heart-wrenching details - kills a kitten. Over the next two years, Magnotta continued to upload similar videos showing an ever-escalating pattern of violence toward animals. The videos caught the attention of internet sleuths across the globe and soon a dedicated group came together in an attempt to identify and track down the kitten killer before he escalated to murder.

The leaders of the group (and de facto stars of the docuseries) were Deanna Thompson (who used the screen name Baudi Moovan during their investigation for privacy purposes) and John Green (pseudonym). Their collective dedication and resourcefulness (honestly, you have to watch the doc to believe some of the ways they found clues in the videos) in identifying Magnotta and bringing him to justice plays out over the course of the three-part series. Along the way, they met German expatriate Muervet Douglas, a fellow citizen detective also following the case. “We brought Muervet into the group,” says Thompson, “which is huge because we were very strict about who we brought into our circle.”

It is a stunning and inspiring display of the power of the citizen detective and the vast amount of the information at their fingertips. The group tracked Magnotta to Toronto, then to Montreal. They notified authorities in both cities, but investigators were either limited by protocol or an ability to take the report seriously.

“The detective we worked with in Toronto was initially more interested in trying to figure out who I was instead of the person posting the videos,” says Green. Although that detective eventually came to understand the gravity of the situation, authorities in Montreal were less welcoming. “We notified them that Magnotta was in Montreal just weeks before the murder,” says Green.

You read that right: murder.

In May 2012, Magnotta uploaded a stomach-churning video of his brutal murder and dismemberment of Chinese exchange student Jun Lin. Magnotta was eventually apprehended in Berlin and extradited to Canada, where he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

It’s cold comfort for Thompson, Green, and Douglas. “In Toronto, we had the support of law enforcement, but Montreal was a different story,” laments Thompson. “We wondered if we should fly there and talk to them in person. This was three months before murder and we knew it was coming.” Green expresses the same frustration. “All we wanted them to do was knock on his door, even just to do a welfare check,” he says. “Maybe it would have shaken him up or scared him to the point that he abandoned his plan to kill.

Although they were relieved to see Magnotta face justice, Douglas recognized the unique opportunity the trio had created. “We realized that we were pretty good at this kind of work,” she says. Together they created the Animal Beta Project. Their website describes the mission and purpose of the organization:

"We seek out individuals that have harmed an animal where the act or aftermath was captured digitally. We search for abusers and turn over evidence to the proper authorities in the correct jurisdiction. We have a very specific set of criteria when we are looking for cases. We do not have “boots on the ground” and unfortunately are no help to animals where there is no digital evidence to be seen. We do not take donations, or charge any money for investigations."

Since its inception, the ABP has investigated dozens of cases of animal abuse across the globe. Most notably, the group assisted in solving a case in Houston, TX which involved “crush fetish” videos submitted to the site. “These videos involve animal abuse, but there are underlying tones of child abuse, violence, mutilation, and other criminal activity,” explains Thompson.

As any good citizen sleuth knows, animal cruelty is a hallmark of violent offenders, and the group wanted to stop the perpetrators before they moved on to human targets. “Muervet identified the producers within 48 hours,” Thompson says proudly. The crush video producers were eventually convicted and sentenced. “It was a landmark case,” Thompson says. “It was the first federal conviction of a crush case.”

Green predicts a rise in similar cases in the future. “The internet is the new crime scene,” he says. “We’re seeing Facebook Live videos in which people are murdered, recordings of animal abuse and other acts of violence. These videos become crime scenes that provide critical information to investigators.”

However, they are careful to set clear and firm boundaries about their activities. “We don’t investigate,” says Green. “We identify the perpetrators, collect all the information we can, and turn it over to the authorities.” Over time, they have honed the process into an effective art form. Green explains, “We call the jurisdiction, tell them who we are, and ask for a contact. Then we send a one-page PDF with a summary of the information we’ve collected and usually within about an hour we receive a call from the investigators.”

CrimeCon 2020

We have two different sessions planned with the group at CrimeCon 2020.

The first session will focus on the Netflix series and Magnotta case. “[It] will basically cover the stuff that was left out of the docuseries,” explains Thompson. “We will present some critical evidence and plenty of behind-the-scenes information. If Netflix had used all the content we filmed, they would have needed 36 episodes.”

In their second session, Thompson, Douglas, and Green will focus on their work with the Animal Beta Project. The trio will be joined by a criminal behavior analyst to talk about the bigger picture of animal abuse and its implications for violence against humans. “If there’s evidence that an offender is beating their dog, it’s very likely that they’re also beating their children or spouse,” explains Douglas. “It’s hard but necessary to talk about in order to shine a light on these warning signs.” We hope to help educate thousands of new people about the warning signs and also provide some practical advice if they ever become aware of this happening with someone they know.

While they’re not setting out to create a global army of digital detectives, the group will issue a thought-provoking call to action: “If you come across one of these videos, don’t report it to the site administrators,” Green advises. It sounds counterintuitive, but remember that the videos are key pieces of evidence that could lead to a killer. “Our knee-jerk reaction is to report it and have it taken away so we don’t have to see it, but once it’s gone, it’s of no use to investigators. Leave the video and notify authorities instead.”