Aaron Cattle Mutilation Investigation 12/12/09
This is my fifth cattle mutilation investigation for 2009.
IMPORTANT NOTE! Due to the amount of press coverage on the Sanchez mutilation which occurred one month earlier, the rancher requested that his name not be used in any publication by me or my team. If the rancher’s name appears in the media any time soon, it will be the result of the rancher’s wishes or the previous investigator. Therefore this investigation will be referred to the “Aaron Mutilation”, as requested by the rancher.
On Thursday December 10th I was contacted by a rancher in the town of San Luis, Colorado about a possible cow mutilation in the area which occurred earlier in the week. After contacting the rancher in question, I was told he had contacted another investigator from the area and scheduled a meeting with him on the morning of Friday December 11th. I then asked the rancher if I could see the animal the morning of Saturday December 12th to conduct my own investigation. He agreed.
Approximately 9:30am Saturday December 12th, my team including; my son Chuck who is on leave from Afghanistan, Matt Morgan and Trina Bivens from Colorado Springs, met the rancher at his house and was taken to the mutilation site. The following are the notes from the investigation.
This was the location the animal was found. It was then moved previously by the rancher to our investigation location.
Overview:
Mutilation location, San Luis, Colorado.
40 plus year experienced rancher, third year on this ranch.
Ranch has an average 30 cattle.
Animal mutilation occurred some time Monday, 12/07/09.
Rancher found cow on Tuesday, 12/08/09.
Rancher never experienced previous mutilation on property.
Cow calved 2008.
Calf is alive and doing fine.
Cow was found laying on its left side approximately 90 yards from the rest of herd.
Rancher then moved animal estimated quarter of a mile from mutilated location, to ranch dump site away from herd grazing area.
Movement method was dragging left side of animal behind pick-up truck using a chain connected to front legs. Marks were noted.
Statistics:
Cow was Limousine.
Cow was not insured. Rancher told me he will now look into insuring his other cattle.
Cow was 4 years old.
Cow was estimated 900 pounds.
Length, nose to hind end, 95”.
Length, head nose to middle of neck, 28”.
Length, crown to bottom of jaw, 18”.
Length, shoulder to hoof, 52”.
Girth width measured from top, 39”.
Carcass appeared slightly bloated.
No special diet, just wild grass eaten.
Wounds:
Udder area was completely removed.
Mouth open and tongue removed, small amount of dried blood was noticed near inside of mouth.
Left side of face was removed, approximately 48 square inches of flesh missing. The blood markings on the snow to the left of the wound is from me rolling the animal over to get a better look at it.
Right eye ball was missing and blood was present around socket, appears to be bird damage.
No apparent bone scoring marks on open wound in face.
Note: Previous investigator from 12/11/09 had pried mouth open to view inside of mouth. Mouth was closed when rancher initially found it.
Scavenger damage in anal area, not known if unusual damage was initially there.
Unusual straight laceration on underside of belly, 18”. This could have been caused by previous investigator.
Small 1 inch square sample wounds were noticed which were caused by previous day’s investigation.
Area Conditions:
Snow was present in area at time of finding mutilation; some snow had melted by investigation time.
At time of death, weather was sub zero conditions with negative wind chill.
No footprints, tire wheel markings were found initially by rancher.
No blood pooling was seen around animal by rancher.
No scavenger evidence was seen near animal by rancher.
Investigation:
Day of investigation, temperature estimated 30 to 35 degrees plus wind chill.
Traces of blood were seen on animal near massive trauma areas due to transportation of animal by rancher.
No radiation detected.
Magnetic wand sweep did not detect any metallic substances on body.
No compass movement observed during body sweep.
Hand and eye sweep of animal’s hide looking for any unusual bumping, gouging, or marks. One mark was found, an unusual straight laceration mentioned above.
EMF meter measured slight electro magnetic field around body.
Very unusual high EMF meter movement occurred when passing over the base of the right ear near the face wound. Using an AlphaLab Trifield EMF Meter which measures electric field and magnetic field, the meter was measuring over 100 microteslas! The static magnetic field of the earth is about 50 microtesla, so the measurement I observed was more than double that of the earth! I repeated this experiment multiple times while resetting the meter to insure validity of test, and I still achieved the same measurements. So I asked the rancher if he tags the ears of his cattle, and he said he does not. Also no visual signs of anything metallic was near the ear area or open wound.
Flesh sample was taken along edge of facial wound.
Rancher states no mountain lions in area, has not seen one.
Rancher states no wolves seen in area.
Cows graze on large pasture estimated 4 miles from ranch house.
Elevation of pasture 8460 feet.
Police report filed with the Costilla County Sheriff’s office.
No helicopters were seen.
No Military vehicles of any sort were detected by rancher.
No strange noises were heard.
No strange smells were detected.
My Sony Night Shot model TRV-130 stopped functioning due to premature battery drain.
No cellular coverage in immediate area.
Unresponsive portable GPS and a digital camera reset were experience at mutilation site.
Conclusion:
This animal was investigated twice. Once on Friday morning Dec. 11th by an unknown local investigator, and then again by me and my team on Saturday morning Dec. 12th. I purposely waited until Saturday so as not to impede on the other person’s investigation.
Because this animal was moved from its original mutilation site, I was unable to do a complete investigation. Samples were taken and currently on ice awaiting response from my contact at CSU to determine next plan of action.
This mutilation mimicked two previous investigations I’ve done this year except for the massive trauma to the facial area. One very unique and phenomenal measurement I saw included using an EMF meter checking for an Electro Magnetic Field. My meter’s needle literally pegged to full maximum when waiving it over the open face wound from the base of the lower ear. I have never experience this type of meter behavior before and need to research this phenomenon. One “after thought” regret was not having the proper arm length gloves to enable me to check the internal facial cavity for any type of foreign object which could have caused the extreme meter movement. Either way this phenomenon needs to be addressed. One thought includes stories in which alien abductees who had implants removed left a residual electro magnetic reading. I’m not saying this animal was mutilated by aliens; I’m just trying to reason this part of the investigation.
My initial thought was, this mutilation could have been caused by a copy-cat human due to the recent news of the Sanchez mutilation in the area. I never suspected the rancher or his family or their story. But after completion our investigation that theory became implausible. Most investigators don’t sweep with an EMF meter and would have never experienced the phenomenon I encountered near the facial wound.
Chuck Zukowski
Category: Cattle Mutilations, gore, Investigations
