July 2018, Colorado Cow Mutilation.
Animal Mutilation, Trinidad, Colorado
(Picture courtesy Sally Miller)
On Monday morning July 16th, while checking his fields, rancher Tom Miller saw birds circling a specific area off in the distance. Concerned it may be his worst fear, a dead animal, he drove his truck closer to that location. As he got closer to the site, the eerie smell in the air confirmed his fear. Upon closer inspection, he found one of his Red Angus cows laying dead off in the distance. As he approached the carcass his fear increased 10 fold as he noticed this animal didn’t die naturally, but was horribly mutilated.
With no immediate signs of how the animal died, it appeared to have been killed, carved and placed in that location. He had seen the free grazing herd in the area a couple of days back, and there were no signs any of cows were ill. Matter of fact, he’s pretty sure this particular animal was pregnant because it was placed near a stud bull. After realizing what he was looking at, the decision was made to contact me, an animal mutilation investigator.
Animal mutilations are not new to Tom, this one makes the 12th or 13th animal to die of unknown circumstances on his ranch in the past 20 years. What’s even more unusual is, out of all the ranch’s in the area, his ranch seems to be targeted over and over again. I’ve investigated multiple mutilations on this ranch since 2009, and with every investigation I do, I learn something new.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is how to determine cause of death using Mother Nature as a guide, especially when the weather has been dry and hot.
In hot summer months flies are usually found around garbage, animal waste and in this case, an animal carcass. From the moment an adult fly lays an egg the larva emerges between 12 to 24 hours depending on the weather conditions. We can determine the estimated time of death of an animal based on the larva feeding on the carcass. The rancher found this animal on Monday, July 16th, and based on the larva size and quantity, the animal appeared to have died 2 days earlier, on Saturday, July 14th. This time frame also coincides to the time frame the animals were last seen grazing in that area, which was also Saturday, the 14th.
I was contacted on Monday July 16th by the rancher, and based on the description of the animal, the death exceeded the 24 hour window of opportunity in which biological samples could be taken for analysis. After a couple of days of the dead animal laying in the field, contamination sets in from insects and scavengers affecting any possibility of a good biological sample. At this point the only thing left to do is, see the carcass and run a quick investigation looking for other clues.
Due to mine and the rancher’s schedule, I couldn’t get out to physically see the animal until Wednesday, July 18th. But that’s ok, because if high EMF’s (electro-magnetic-fields) had existed at the time of death, or even radiation, there was still enough time to detect any residual contamination before it dissipated.
When I reached the animal on Wednesday, unfortunately a bear and a couple of cubs disturbed the hind area of the carcass the night before. It appeared they left the unknown surgical-like incision in the facial area alone. The jaw was still intact and not pulled apart like one of the hind legs was.
The Red Angus was around 4 to 5 years old and tipped the scales over 1100 pounds. Over 7 feet in length, this particular cow appeared to have been in great health determined by her weight, color and teeth. Possibly pregnant at the time of death, the animal was found with the rear area and milk sack region cored out, and the hide around the jaw line completely stripped down to the bone.
Note: There is no reason for a scavenger to take the hide around the jaw because of the lack of flesh and fat in that area.
Aerial view from my drone camera.
My investigation showed no high levels of EMF nor any levels of radiation near or around the animal. The discoloration around the animal on the soil is due to decomposing tissue releasing fluids from animal tissue and fat. The only signs of blood the rancher saw was a few drops on the front right leg near the elbow joint. No massive amounts of blood were seen which would have depicted a predator take-down.
Aerial view of mute site around 100 feet.
This was the first animal mutilation investigation using my DJI Phantom 4 drone. Something I never got to see in past investigations were animal track marks near the mute site. You can clearly see the altered vegetation due to the cattle activity. This is also the second time rancher Miller had a mutilated cow near trees. Usually they are found in a field.
Aerial view of mute site around 200 feet.
What’s interesting at 200 feet were the abundance of animal tracks leading to and from the mutilation site. Like the previous aerial picture, you can see the vegetation around the animal is disturbed, possibly due to the actual mutilation or possibly curious cows.
Picture from mutilation facing east.
What makes this animal mutilation more significant is, a UFO sighting the night of the mutilation.
Just east of the ranch outside of Hoehne, Colorado, a friend of the rancher contacted them about a sighting they had a few nights before. On July 14th, Saturday night around 11:00pm, the witness (name on file) watched reddish-orange lights in a circular pattern flashing on and off. These lights were going round and round like a Ferris wheel about the size of a bicycle tire. The lights were heading west which would be in the general location of the mutilation site. While watching the lights rotate and moving away from the witnesses location, they suddenly disappeared, as if they were never there.
The rancher estimates the cow died July 14th Saturday night, because he saw the herd that day. The fly larva gestation period also puts the death of the animal around Saturday night too! Now we have an eye-witness who watched a strange pattern of lights rotating in the night sky heading in the direction of the ranch the night of the mutilation. Coincidence or is it connected?
The general area where the mutilation occurred is no stranger to unusual lights seen. The rancher has seen unknown lights off in the distance as well as moving balls of light from time to time. Even some hunters using the rancher’s land for hunting told the rancher they saw a ball of light zigzagging in a nearby field then suddenly dart off into the early morning dark sky.
So what’s going on?
Strange lights and even unknown craft have been seen around many animal mutilation sites. I have reports of lights seen a week before a mutilation took place and a couple of days afterwards. I’ve also interviewed ranchers who’ve seen un-marked helicopters in the area after a mutilation event, as if they’re running their own investigation.
Animal mutilation investigations are by far the toughest investigations to do. Why? Because we really don’t know what killed the animal. What if the animal died of a viral infection that could be passed on to humans? I’m working another case in which it looks like what caused some cow’s deaths, could have caused the death of a few horses, goats and a hog. Something viral that’s jumping species? Scary stuff.
With every animal mutilation case I do, I learn something new, so the more cases I hear about or are involved with, the closer I’m getting to understanding what’s going on. Sure I have my theories, but some particular evidence I’m looking for will be the smoking gun. Until then, it’s just a cat and mouse game.
Category: Cattle Mutilations
