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San Luis, Colorado

On November 16th I received a phone call from Alejandro Rojas from Openminds.tv, Tempe, Arizona.  He informed me that there was a cattle mutilation here in Colorado.  He learned this from  rancher Sanchez’s daughter who contacted him asking for help.   I then contacted the rancher and made arrangements to go to his ranch the next day to investigate this unusual animal death.  The following is my investigation.

This mutilation occurred in the city of San Luis, Costilla County Colorado.  San Luis is the oldest city in Colorado, established in 1851 and the 2000 census stated the population was 739.  This area is not new to cattle mutilations, the first documented case was the famous “Lady” (aka. Snippy) the horse.  This unusual death affected an Appaloosa outside of Alamosa on the King Ranch in which the animal was found with very strange laser-like cuts with no presence of blood pooling.  Rancher Sanchez has experienced passed cattle mutilations, the last one back in 2006.

This animal also had very strange laser-like cut marks common to the other mutilations in the area, but Sanchez’s latest mutilations have taken a very dramatic turn from what he’s witnessed before.  Rather than the laser-like cutting on adult animals, the attacks are now on calves.  And not one, but he’s lost four within 3 weeks.  All four were not just merely mutilated but basically destroyed.  As if a semi-truck at hit in at 80mph.  The following are my notes from this investigation.

Calf Statistics:
- Rancher found calf at 5:00pm on 11/16/09
- Calf was Hereford Limousine Steer
- Calf is 4-5 months old
- Calf weight is unknown, estimated over 200 lbs.
- Calf was found laying head facing 330 degrees.
- Calf’s twisted body from end to end was 4 foot 6 inches.
- Calf’s twisted body mid section 19 inches.
- Calf’s left rear leg from knee bend to hoof was 1 foot 6 inches.

Calf Conditions:
- Tail of animal was present and appeared normal.
- Right eye ball was missing and blood was present around socket, appears to be bird scavenger damage.
- Left eye ball appeared intact tucked away from the scavengers.
- Blood was present around nostrils but appeared to be more of a fluid oozing.
- Chest cavity was completely cored out which was the condition the rancher had initially found.
- No animal remains were seen near the animal or near the empty chest cavity.
- No blood pooling was seen on the foliage near the animal.
- No apparent blood was seen on animal’s skin near the massive trauma area.

- Some apparent teeth markings were seen on the rib cage but not on every rib. Appears scavengers may have gnawed on animal the night before my investigation.
- No special diet, just wild grass eaten.
- Salt was given to cows last winter, but not yet for this winter.

Investigation:

- Patchy snow was present in immediate area at time of finding mutilation; most snow had melted away by investigation time.
- Quick immediate land survey looking for any unusual signs. (ie. Out of place looking) None found.
- No human footprints, tire wheel markings were found initially by rancher or by me.
- No radiation detected on Geiger counter.
- EMF meter measured slight electro magnetic field with some unusual spiking about 15 microteslas near the animal’s head during sweep.
- No flesh samples were taken due to condition of animal and probable cause of scavenger contamination was present.
- Two samples of rib bones were taken to perform a closer examination. Since scavenger damage was present no direct conclusions could be made from the initial condition of the bones when the rancher found the animal.

- Mouth was closed tight and had to be pried open to reveal the inside. I noticed the tongue had been cut off over an inch behind lower teeth. Tongue incision was too far back in mouth to be caused by biting, and appeared to be a straight cut. Mouth was very hard to pry open to see tongue; I had to use a small archeology tool for prying.
- Rancher states no mountain lions in area, has not seen one.
- Wolf was spotted in August near Rancher’s house 6 miles away from cow pasture where calf was found.
- Cows graze on 180 acre pasture.
- Elevation of pasture 8760 feet.
- Police report filed 11/16/09 with the Costilla County Sheriff’s office.
- 4 calves in total were mutilated within the past 3 weeks and were found in the general area within 100 yards.
- First two were found on October 25.
- Third calf was found November 9th, and police report was filed.
- Fourth calf (this investigation) was found November 16th and police report was filed.
- All four calves were found in the similar condition like this investigation, only difference was third calf also had laser like cut sectioning off the right side of face. (Will try to locate pictures if available from the Sheriff’s office) Typical mutilation cutting. Third calves skeletal remains were located but the head was missing from spine, rancher thought that unusual.

Other:
- No helicopters were seen.
- No Military vehicles of any sort were detected by rancher.
- No strange noises were ever heard.
- No strange smells were ever detected.
- Rancher Manuel did notice strange lights over a hill behind his house in the Eastern direction from July to August 2009. A bright light appeared at 4:00am then slowly drifted in the direction of his pasture within an hour and had disappeared by 5:00am. The distance of the light drift appeared to be a couple of miles. This sighting lasted about a month time frame.

- Other than the lights seen in August, all surroundings appeared normal all the time.

- Rancher is so distraught about losing 4 calves within a 3 week period, that he is taking the rest of his calves to auction Wednesday November 18th and selling them in fear of possibly losing more calves.

- My Sony Night Shot model TRV-87 stopped functioning towards end of this investigation. Battery was still 30% at that time. Unit refuses to play investigation tape, but tape can be seen on one of my other cameras. Tape appears fine, Camera does not. Heh heh it’s always the electronics.
- No cellular coverage in immediate area.
- Interesting note, on the way back from San Luis my BlackBerry Storm was indicating a fluctuation between detecting Mountain Standard Time and Pacific Standard Time. The clock kept shifting back and forth by an hour.

Summary:

The calf appeared to be similar to the Miller Cattle Mutilation case I investigated back in March of 2009.  The main differences are the Miller calf was missing both ears, and the Sanchez calf was missing its tongue. Every other aspect of the mutilated animals appears to be the same.  I will do a GPS comparison between the Miller and Sanchez cases looking for possible similarities.

It appears certain cattle mutilations have graduated from the known laser-like cut marks to complete animal obliteration.  All four calves mutilated on this ranch had similar physical attributes.  The center section was missing, the rib cage was cored out, and no blood was present on the ground near the animal or on its hide.  The calf I investigated was missing its tongue, unfortunately I was unable to see the other three to compare.  We did find the remains from the third calf, but the head was missing and I was unable to further my investigation.

Note:

Colorado Springs KOAA news reporter Andy Koen was present to document my investigation.