Throughout the neighborhood surrounding a boarded up trailer in Winlock that was recently the scene of a grisly double homicide, a colony of between 12 and 30 feral cats can be found roaming and sheltering under cars and makeshift awnings.
The cats were once lovingly cared for by the trailer’s residents, Don Piccolo, 61, and Kim R. Torres, 51, who took on feeding the cats after Winlock-based cat rescue Whiskers of Hope conducted a trap-neuter-return (TNR) operation on the colony.
TNR is a common practice to improve stray cat welfare and reduce cat overpopulation that involves humanely trapping stray or feral cats, taking them to a vet to be vaccinated and spayed or neutered before releasing them back into the wild.
“I guess after Whiskers of Hope spayed and neutered them, they were kind of Don and Kim’s colony,” said Patti Angeliz Amos of Valhalla Canine Rescue in Winlock. “But also, a lot of them were really tame, because they hung out with them.”
Piccolo and Torres were last seen alive between Feb. 3 and Feb. 4. They were both found dead inside their trailer the night of Feb. 25 after a citizen requested a wellness check.
The Lewis County Coroner’s Office has determined the manner of death for both Piccolo and Torres was homicide.
Investigators suspect the two were murdered by Robert Eugene Chandler, 35, from the
Toledo area, on Feb. 4. Chandler allegedly used two swords in the fatal attacks.
In the weeks between when Piccolo and Torres were last seen alive and when their deaths were discovered, neighbors reported seeing the cat colony spread throughout the neighborhood, digging through trash cans and hunting for food.
One neighbor quickly reached out to Valhalla Canine Rescue after the murders were discovered to ask whether the nonprofit had cat food in its pet food bank.
“Then I started asking questions, because I’d seen other rescues that were supposedly helping out,” Angeliz said. “I asked her if anything was happening, and she said she hadn’t really seen anybody that has really moved forward.”
Angeliz and the neighbor, working with Eliza Harris of Whiskers of Hope and another Winlock-based veterinary nonprofit, Wayward Companions Foundation, have been feeding the cats twice a day for the last few weeks and are working to find sustainable living situations for all of the cats.
“We’ve been trying to at least get kind of a count,” Angeliz said, adding that she has personally seen as many as 12 cats during daytime feedings, but that others have seen more come out overnight.
The volunteers are making preparations to start trapping the cats and getting them to a local veterinarian.
“The thing is, once we trap them, what are we going to do with them?” Angeliz said.
With the trailer they call home being a crime scene and none of Piccolo and Torres’ relatives or neighbors able to take on primary care of the colony, letting the cats stay in the Winlock neighborhood is not a viable option, Angeliz said.
Valhalla Canine Rescue does have a few cats in its care, but with Angeliz being severely allergic to cats and the nonprofit already stretched thin on resources, she’s not able to take the colony in herself.
Whiskers of Hope and Wayward Companions are similarly strained for space and resources, as are many cat rescues in the area.
“We’re all small. None of us are making any money,” Angeliz said.
Once trapped, the cats will be taken to Valhalla Canine Rescue’s veterinarian to get checked out and microchipped, vaccinated and spayed or neutered as needed.
Then, ideally, the cats will go into foster homes.
“I think if we get them in foster homes, people that can play with them and give them time, they’re going to tame up, and then they can find forever homes,” Angeliz said.
Cats that aren’t suited for domestic life will hopefully go to secure barn homes, where they can live outdoors in a way that prevents them from going back to the Winlock neighborhood.
“We’ll try and place them two-by-two, or with colonies that will be able to manage being in a secure barn home,” Angeliz said.
Petsense of Chehalis recently donated a large supply of cat food to Valhalla Canine Rescue’s food banks to feed the cat colony, so the volunteers have enough supplies to keep feeding the cats regularly until they can arrange foster homes for the cats.
For foster homes, Angeliz said, they’re looking for people who “are willing to take some time” with the cats.
“We supply everything … They just have to supply some love and a place that’s understanding of them,” she said.
While she didn’t personally know Piccolo or Torres, Angeliz said that ensuring the cat colony gets the care they need is a simple way to honor the couple’s memory.
“I want these cats to find better lives. They obviously were nice people — they cared for the cats, at least as far as I can tell,” she said.
Community members are asked to not feed the cats themselves, as they’re on a feeding schedule to help encourage them to congregate around the feeding sites at certain times of day, which will help with trapping them later on.
People are welcome to stop by to see the cats and visit the memorial for Piccolo and Torres set up in the yard outside their trailer at 401 Byham Road.
Anyone interested in fostering a cat or donating money to go towards food and veterinary costs is asked to contact Angeliz at valhallarescue@gmail.com or 253-363-7908.
Whiskers of Hope can be contacted through https://www.whiskershoperescue.org/.
Updates on the cat colony’s situation will be posted on Valhalla Canine Rescue’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/valhallacaninerescue.
Additionally, Piccolo’s family is still raising money for his celebration of life and post-death costs. The link to the fundraiser is https://gofund.me/d663c018.
Information on Torres’ funeral arrangements was not publicly available as of Friday afternoon.
Chandler’s next hearing is scheduled for 8:40 a.m. on April 3 in Lewis County Superior Court to review the status of his competency evaluation. An arraignment hearing initially scheduled for March 20 did not take place.
