Cw Animal De*th

I don’t know if this belongs here, but I desperately need some advice and neutral-party opinions. Context matters here, so please read the whole post.

“Did my friends bf k*ll my other friends cat, and the ‘replacement’ I gave her?”

My friend, we'll call her Tina, recently moved to a new house with her friend whom we'll call Amy, and Amy's boyfriend "Dylan". None of them lived here previously, it’s a new move for all 3 of them. Tina and Amy both work days, while Dylan has yet to find a job so he's home all day. Tina brought her cat to their new house, no other pets were present but they have a 3 pet limit. Amy and Dylan wanted to get a puppy, but prior to their moving, my fiancé and I had taken in a pregnant stray cat and Tina planned to take two kittens, one for her and Amy. This would have put them at the 3 per limit, leaving them unable to get a puppy.

Within the first week of the move, Tina's cat passed while she and Amy were at work. Dylan told them that Tina's old rickety box fan had fallen on her, which may have been possible, but it was NOT a heavy fan. Certainly not heavy enough to have done the damage that had happened to the cats head, but they had no proof and no reason to believe it was anything more than a freak accident. I drove to comfort her, and offered for her to take the mother cat as well as the two kittens, as the mother cat had grown to love Tina as she was often at my house. She accepted immediately, no hesitation. While I was there to console Tina, Amy returned home from work and immediately began speaking lightly of the situation, smiling and even cracking a few jokes. Imo, this was very strange to do considering her best friend had just lost a very important part of her life.

Tina's mom, grandma, my MIL, and a few other people truly believe that Dylan hurt her cat. I honestly do too, but there is no proof and Tina adamantly denies that he would do something like that. She claims that since he also cried while she was sobbing over her cats body, that he couldn’t have done it.

Fast forward to last week, about a month after the first incident. The kittens were ready to go, and having no proof and no real reason to have ever suspected anything, I sent them and mama home with Tina. I was sent photos and videos of them exploring and seemingly adjusting well. My fiancé and I visited them Sunday (3 days after they initially took them) to make sure all is well, and we noticed a scratch on mama's shoulder. When we asked, we were told she freaked out at first because she was in a new place sans some babies, and most likely hurt herself during this time. Sure, makes sense.

Well, tonight I received a text from Tina that mama had passed. When she was perfectly fine a day ago. The excuse was that they think she cut herself on the broken wood of their couch, which she could have, but if that were the case I feel like there would have been much more blood. Her back leg looked broken, but it's hard to tell in a photo. Two healthy adult cats have died each within a week of being in their home when only Dylan was there. Leaving them once again able to get a puppy since now there's only two kittens there. (Again, looking at that 3-pet limit.)

I haven't told my fiancé yet as he's asleep (I work nights) but he is going to be devastated as he loved mama cat (we couldn't keep her as we have two adult cats already and they hated each other, so this WAS a perfect solution). He is going to want to get the police or animal control involved, but again, there is absolutely no proof of foul play.

I know he’s going to want to take the kittens back, and I think that’s the wisest choice here since that house clearly isn't safe for animals, even if these instances weren't Dylan's doing. My question is, what would you all do in this situation? Are my suspicions justified? Do we have a reason to make a police report, despite absolutely no evidence?