Chicken Cannibalism? murder? Input please

[GranolaGirl]

I have two hens (Prissy & Greta) who were broody and insisted on staying in the same nest box for about a week. If I removed Greta or moved Prissy, Greta would follow her and climb back in the nest box with her. I just went outside to collect eggs and noticed Prissy dead in the back of the run missing a head and 1/2 her body. There were feathers from both birds in the coop and Greta's feathers were all over the corner of the run. Greta is fine, but missing some neck feathers. What could have caused this?!
Is is possible that they got into a fight and then the other birds (I have 13 all together) ate the meat of Prissy? It is quite disturbing. Advice/input would be very welcomed.

 

[dlynne1123]

Sounds like a critter got to them, not each other.

 

[GranolaGirl]

It would appear so, but we have them in a 20x20 fenced run with a fenced roof on it. We looked for possible openings and can't find any. Also, the piles of feathers were about 15 feel apart and there was no blood by the feathers just the bloody corpse

 

[jaj121159]

Sounds like a critter got to them, not each other.

I agree with dlynne. What kind of fencing do you have on the run? If there is no holes for a critter to get into the run or coop something could have reached through the fencing and got them. If you have bigger openings in the fence like chicken wire or welded fencing, you need to put hardware cloth up at least a couple of feet.