When a missing black-and-white cat was found tortured and killed, his family was understandably distraught. Not only was the young cat shot 11 times by a BB gun, but he was also bound, burned, and left to die beneath a car in Cambridge, Massachusetts, crying and writhing in pain.

“We’re devastated, and we cannot believe that something like this could happen to our cat,” Gosha’s owner, Francisco Rosales, said in a press release, “and our fear is that whoever killed Gosha could do this to someone else’s pet.”

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Sadly, Rosales’ fears weren't unfounded. Since Gosha's brutalized body was discovered, the owners of two other cats with similar injuries have come forward.

In the first case, an 8-year-old cat (whose owner preferred to withhold her name) came home with BB gun pellets covering one side of her body. Another cat, Buddy, returned to his house with mysterious burns after going missing for 5 days. Unlike Gosha, who sadly died from his wounds, both cats survived, but now investigators believe all 3 cases may be connected.

“There are striking similarities between the Gosha case and what happened on March 4 to another pet cat from the same East Cambridge neighborhood," investigators wrote on Twitter, noting that "a *third* cat named Buddy (pictured) who went missing in early May & returned on May 5 suffering from some kind of burn...”

https://twitter.com/MspcaAngell/status/1392155449319989251

This extremely cruel nature of Gosha’s killing also led investigators to increase their reward from 1,000 to $2,500, while worried neighbors have started a GoFundMe page to raise additional reward money.

“This vile and heinous act has our entire community in utter disbelief and looking for any way at all possible to help this investigation lead to a conviction,” wrote Jane Morgan, who created the GoFundMe page called "Catching the East Cambridge Cat Killer."

The worried neighbor explained how she hoped the GoFundMe page, which will be used to supplement the $2,500 MSPCA reward, would help incentivize anyone with information to come forward.

"Please consider donating, even if just $5,” pleaded Morgan, who like many East Cambridge residents, is horrified by the thought of this sick person on the loose. At time of writing, the GoFundMe page had raised more than $5,000.

Please contact MSPCA Law Enforcement at 800-628-5808 or Cambridge police at 617-349-3300 if you have any information about these crimes. In the meantime, please keep your cats inside!