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LONDON — A killer in Britain has been brought to justice after hairs from his pet cat were found on a body he dismembered.

Detectives used a DNA database of British cats and found the hairs came from Tinker, a cat owned by David Hilder.

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And the reason Hilder killed his neighbour and friend David Guy may have been because of the cat.

“Hilder’s violence may also have been triggered by the fact that his friend was not taking care of his cat,” Stuart Ellacott of the Crown Prosecution Service told the BBC.

Hilder killed and dismembered 30-year-old Mr. Guy in the English resort town of Southsea last year, dumping his torso on a nearby beach, where it was discovered by students.

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Police found eight cat hairs on the body. Det. Supt. Dick Pearson, of Hampshire Constabulary, said the cat hairs played a major part of the investigation.

Police sent the hairs to California for analysis. There scientists found the cat’s mitochondrial DNA was quite rare.