Owl kill out in the open: Cat on back, paws and head cut off but in place of orientation, rib cage cut open with entrails gone.
I didn’t see the kills, but that sounds a whole lot like what was going on. The locals here were convinced that a satanic cult was ritually killing house cats and leaving them out on lawns.
This is Orange County CA suburbia, but it’s cheek by jowl with wild land that once featured Grizzly bears. A lot of people moving here think it’s as tame as their old neighborhoods and it’s not. We have coyotes, raccoons, owls, hawks, bobcats, skunks and the occasional mountain lion... you just don’t often see them other than the hawks.