February 19, 2003 -- By Ben Swann, KFOX News at Nine Las Cruces Bureau

Neighbors say they had no clue there were so many cats living in the house. What they had witnessed seemed to be increasingly strange behavior from the woman who lived in the home.

A Las Cruces man, who wanted only to be identified as "Nicholas", says he was shocked to learn that both Las Cruces Police and animal control had to clear out his neighbor's house.

I'd see a couple or a few of them in the windows at times. They would crawl up next to the curtains," said Nicholas.

Las Cruces Police were called out to this house on Sanchez Place, after a neighbor complained of strange odors. What officers found inside, were lots of cats.

"They determined there were about 75 cats in the house," says Lt. Juan Moreno of the Las Cruces Police

The owner of the house, whose neighbors say is just under 40 years old, has had incidents with animals before. Back about 10 years ago she had 4 or 5 dogs in her yard, which the city made her get rid of. Then a few years ago, she had a litter of kittens die in her attic. Over the past decade, at least one neighbor says he has noticed a woman, who was almost "overly" friendly, become very different

As for the cats, an investigation is underway to understand what was happening within the house

Police do say that some of these 75 cats were very sickly, though at this point they still are not sure why. They also say there were some dead cats in the house, but not scattered around. They say all those cats were located inside of a working freezer.

Lt. Moreno says, "We are wanting to determine or look to see if these cats that have died were subjected to any type of extreme cruelty.

Animal control has taken all of the cats to a shelter. A veterinarian was called out to the house and a lab will soon determine why the cats are sick.

As for the owner, she has been taken to Memorial Medical Center for both a physical and psychological examination