BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — More than two years after her cat was found shot and dumped in the St. Vrain River, a Longmont woman is finally getting her day in court as a civil trial over the killing began Monday.
Back in 2023, Holly Mathews was still reeling over the tragedy of her pet cat being killed and dumped in a river. She said the cat's GPS collar led them right to the scene, but it was moments too late.
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"I'm not naive to think that aggravated animal cruelty doesn't exist, but you always think 'It couldn't happen to me or my cat,'" she told Denver7 back in 2023.
Basil was an indoor-outdoor cat and loved to explore, so Mathews got a GPS collar for her.
The cat would typically roam around the couple's Longmont neighborhood. The couple set up a perimeter on the collar's app to notify them when Basil left the neighborhood.
Around 9 p.m. on August 27, 2023, Mathews got that notification. They opened the app to see that GPS was showing Basil moving quickly.
"She's traveling in what looks like a car, looking at the speed she's moving on the road," Mathews told Denver7 at the time.
The owners got in their car and followed the GPS feed until it stopped in the St. Vrain River.
"He pulled her out of a trash bag. Her body at that point was still warm," Mathews told Denver7 in 2023.
► Watch Danielle Kreutter's report in the player below:
The cat was shot and dumped.
When Mathews looked back on GPS data from earlier in the day, it showed Basil was at one specific property for several hours straight.
Addresses have been redacted by Denver7.
As part of their investigation, Longmont police questioned the owner of that property, Lewis Embree. In the police report, the detective noted that Embree owns a "vehicle almost identical, if not the same" as one seen on a traffic camera not long after GPS showed Basil was dumped, and not far from the location.
Lewis told the officer that he does own the property, but he doesn't live there.
The officer asks about the truck caught on camera at the intersection near the crime scene.
“Right around the time, is that your truck? It looks like it, huh?" asked the officer.
“I think, yeah,” Lewis said. He added that he often drives around for work.
"Is it only you who drives the truck, or does anybody else drive it?" a Longmont police officer is heard asking on his body camera.
"I'm the only one who drives that truck," Lewis responded.
"No kids or anybody else, grandkids?" the officer asked.
"Nobody," Lewis answered.
The initial police report notes that after obtaining an AT&T search warrant, data revealed, "there is no data available to corroborate after 9 p.m. that Embree's phone was in the area where Basil was found."
It was determined there was not enough evidence to press any criminal charges against anyone for Basil's case.
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“Officer Carter (the investigating officer in this case) put in a ton of work on this. Just getting the search warrant for phone records and some of the data around that takes time. There’s a lot of data that has to be compiled and worked through,” said then-Longmont Police Chief Jeffrey Satur after the case was closed in 2024. “We can’t just go on our gut, we can’t. We have to have probable cause. We have to have enough information to potentially take this to trial, and we’re not there.”
It was a disappointing outcome for Mathews, who believed there was enough circumstantial evidence to move forward.
When asked back then about possible criticism she may face for wanting to use resources to solve her case, she told Denver7, “I think drawing a hard line in the sand and saying, 'We as a society are not okay with this. We are not okay with someone being inconvenienced by us and taking something from us that is ultimately ending in death, no matter what kind of life it is, is okay.' It really peels back humanity. It exposes a level of cruelty that I think none of us should be okay with."
On Monday morning, the case saw its day in court- for civil charges: intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil theft, and negligence per se—animal cruelty.
During opening statements, attorneys for Mathews indicated they would be relying heavily on the GPS data and traffic camera images.
Lewis' attorney, Charles Torres, said his client is being wrongfully accused.
Torres questioned the accuracy of the GPS data, challenged the claim that it was even Lewis' truck caught on camera, and reminded the jury that cell phone records show Lewis' phone was not anywhere near the scene at the time of the crime.
Mathews was the first witness called to the stand in the civil trial. She explained how Basil's GPS collar worked and shared her account of that night.
"Basil was my companion, she was part of my family," Mathews said on the stand. "I spent so many moments of my free time with her, finding joy in our hikes and adventures.
She is seeking damages in her civil case.
"I want to be clear, there's no amount of money that will make this whole," she said on the stand. "Unfortunately, money is the only thing I'm allowed to ask for in the civil justice system."
Attorneys for Mathews showed photos in court of live animal traps reportedly found in the yard of Lewis' vacant property, where GPS showed Basil was.
During cross-examination, Torres said that Lewis had not used those traps in at least seven years.
Torres said there was a now-condemned "meth house" near the property where Basil was last recorded to be. He added there were reports of animal cruelty and domestic violence coming from that address in the past.
He also noted there are no eyewitnesses to any of the accusations.
The trial is expected to last two more days.
