By MICHELLE R. DAVIS
Camden Bureau

ELGIN

Law Enforcement officials were still searching for dead cats and other clues Tuesday in a partially burned mobile home where more than 50 of the animals were discovered in a refrigerator over the weekend.

The fire at 1490 Thornton Road was reported about 2:40 p.m. Saturday, Blaney Fire Chief David Bagwell said. His crew had to cut the power to the home to put out the fire and routinely checked the refrigerator for things that might go bad, he said.

“There was a refrigerator full of cats,” he said. They freezer was also full of the felines, he said. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and I’ve never found a refrigerator full of cats.”

The cats, 53 by the Kershaw County Sheriff’s Department count, were wrapped in trash bags and food storage bags and were in various states of decomposition. Several kittens were stored inside tin cans in the freezer, Bagwell said.

The owner and only resident of the home, James L. Carter, 40, had not been charged with any crime late Tuesday. Carter told officials he had not had time to dispose of the bodies of the cats, Kershaw County Sheriff Jerry Horton said. Officials believe some of the cats had been in the freezer for 10 years, Horton said. Carter, a bank computer processor, could not be reached for comment.

“He just said he loved cats,” Horton said, adding that Carter had another smaller refrigerator where he kept his food.

Officials searching the rubble Tuesday found piles of “Cat Fancy” magazines, states of Wall Street Journals, books on relationships and pornographic magazines.

Jimmy Jones, Kershaw County director of Special Services – a department that deals with animal control – said investigators found at least three more dead cats inside the home. All are being examined by the Clemson Extension Service, Jones said.

“But just because there are dead animals in the refrigerator doesn’t mean there’s animal cruelty,” he said.

Fifth Circuit Solicitor Dick Harpootlian said officials will continue to investigate. “This is unique. We’re pursuing it to see if there are any criminal violations and if so what they are,” he said. “It’s not the kind of case you confront everyday.”

Columbia Humane Society President Henry Brzezinski said Carter could be an animal “collector” or a “warehouser” who tries to take care of many animals.

“A lot of people think they are doing an animal a good deed by taking them in,” he said. But if there are too many, they often live in horrible conditions, he said.

The mobile home is set on more than an acre of heavily wooded land, and officials said they plan to bring in a backhoe today to begin sifting through the dirt. The mobile home is flanked closely on both sides and across the dirt road by other homes.

Next-door neighbors Brian Smith and Patty Smith said Carter was living in his home when they moved in eight years ago. They said they often saw him bringing cats to his home.

“He used to have hundreds of them around,” Brian Smith said.