A Park City Public Works Department worker collecting garbage at the Park City Cemetery on Thursday discovered a paper bag containing three dead chickens, with one of the carcasses missing its head, the Police Department said.

The case was the second in Park City involving decapitated animals in four days, heightening fears that the animals were killed as part of a ritual. There had not been similar reports prior to the one early in the week.

Phil Kirk, a police captain, said each of the chicken carcasses found at the cemetery had been partially burned. Each still had its feathers, meaning that it is unlikely someone had tried to cook them for consumption. The head of the one that had been decapitated was not found.

The Police Department received the report at just after 1 p.m., and the bag was discovered close to the west entrance of the cemetery, which is located on Kearns Boulevard. Kirk said there was not snow on the bag, leading the police to suspect that it had been put there in the middle of the week. It had snowed earlier in the week.

“This increases our concerns now that we have a second incident,” Kirk said.

He said police investigators have not ruled out the possibility that the two episodes are related and that the animals were killed as part of a ritual.

According to Kirk, pieces of cloth of different colors were found tied to one leg of one of the chickens discovered Thursday. The cloth was attached to the leg of one of the chickens that was not decapitated, Kirk said.

“It gives more information this was something more than natural-causes death,” Kirk said.

The first episode of the week was reported on Monday, when seven dead chickens and a dead goat were found just off Bonanza Drive close to the Munchkin Drive intersection. Six of the chickens and the goat had been decapitated. The heads were not found in those cases.

The Park City Cemetery is located just north of the site where the first dead animals were found.

Kirk said the police continue to investigate both of the cases, but there had not been new developments in the investigations by midmorning Friday. He said the bodies of the three chickens discovered on Thursday were provided to Summit County Animal Control for further investigation. The police have not found witnesses who saw the people who left the dead animals in either of the cases.

People with information about the cases, may contact the Police Department at 615-5500 or the department’s anonymous-tip line, 615-5847.