raxar
04-18-2008, 16:22
The ground had fissured in a manner I hadn’t seen before. The crevice was very narrow at the top, then got wider as it went down. The crack was around 10 feet long, it was 5” wide at its center, then tapered down to 2” at both ends. It remained like this for 3 feet, then became considerably wider. The grass on both edges appeared charred.
I had been called in by the rancher, who had discovered a number of his cattle in various states of dismemberment around 7 that morning. They were laid out in a semi-circle around the crack in the ground. Aside from a few drops of blood there wasn't any indication of the violence that had taken place there.
Though calls of dismembered cattle were rare, over the last few months I had gotten two of them, one was a result of a pack of feral dogs, the other an odd case involving a group of teens from a neighboring high school. Neither was remotely like this though. I counted 8 head that had been killed, 3 were missing all their legs, as well as their entrails, they also had their hides partially skinned about 6 inches above the hip joints. The other 5 were decapitated, and had their hides pulled off completely, remaining attached at the knee on the rear right leg. All of the cuts appeared to be quite clean, done in almost a surgical manner, it had to have been a very sharp knife, used by a skilled hand.
Deputy O’reerdy called me over to one of the cows, He pointed to a puncture wound located directly above the left ear. “Goes down about two inches” he said not looking up from the Holstein, “and there’s something hard at the bottom, part of the skull or maybe a bullet”. I opened my Leatherman and pulled out the file, then inserted it into the hole. There was definitely something hard at the bottom, and it was stuck in there pretty well too, tapping the flat tip of the file on it I noted that it had no give.
“What do ya think?” Called the rancher, who was leaning against his pickup a few yards away.
“Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen.” Replied O’reerdy. “This is a lot worse then at the miller’s place last spring when those weird kids from Uniontown had their little ceremony.”
“You hear anything last night?” I asked as I folded up the Leatherman and tucked it back into my pocket.
“Oh around 10 it sounded like a car horn goin’ off for about 10 minutes, but I just figured it was some kids screwing around” replied the Rancher.
“You know graduation’s next week Sheriff.” Said O’reerdy, finally taking his eyes off the cow.
“This would be a hell of a prank, don’t you think O’reerdy” I responded, trying to think of any local seniors who could come up with something like this. “And I don’t see how they could put that kind of crack in the ground”
O’reerdy lit up a smoke and said “you know kids these days, 5 minutes on the Internet and they can find out how to cook meth in a toilet”
“Yeah, You never know these days”....
I had been called in by the rancher, who had discovered a number of his cattle in various states of dismemberment around 7 that morning. They were laid out in a semi-circle around the crack in the ground. Aside from a few drops of blood there wasn't any indication of the violence that had taken place there.
Though calls of dismembered cattle were rare, over the last few months I had gotten two of them, one was a result of a pack of feral dogs, the other an odd case involving a group of teens from a neighboring high school. Neither was remotely like this though. I counted 8 head that had been killed, 3 were missing all their legs, as well as their entrails, they also had their hides partially skinned about 6 inches above the hip joints. The other 5 were decapitated, and had their hides pulled off completely, remaining attached at the knee on the rear right leg. All of the cuts appeared to be quite clean, done in almost a surgical manner, it had to have been a very sharp knife, used by a skilled hand.
Deputy O’reerdy called me over to one of the cows, He pointed to a puncture wound located directly above the left ear. “Goes down about two inches” he said not looking up from the Holstein, “and there’s something hard at the bottom, part of the skull or maybe a bullet”. I opened my Leatherman and pulled out the file, then inserted it into the hole. There was definitely something hard at the bottom, and it was stuck in there pretty well too, tapping the flat tip of the file on it I noted that it had no give.
“What do ya think?” Called the rancher, who was leaning against his pickup a few yards away.
“Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen.” Replied O’reerdy. “This is a lot worse then at the miller’s place last spring when those weird kids from Uniontown had their little ceremony.”
“You hear anything last night?” I asked as I folded up the Leatherman and tucked it back into my pocket.
“Oh around 10 it sounded like a car horn goin’ off for about 10 minutes, but I just figured it was some kids screwing around” replied the Rancher.
“You know graduation’s next week Sheriff.” Said O’reerdy, finally taking his eyes off the cow.
“This would be a hell of a prank, don’t you think O’reerdy” I responded, trying to think of any local seniors who could come up with something like this. “And I don’t see how they could put that kind of crack in the ground”
O’reerdy lit up a smoke and said “you know kids these days, 5 minutes on the Internet and they can find out how to cook meth in a toilet”
“Yeah, You never know these days”....