[The following text is based on a story that appeared in the October, 1996 edition of the monthly Crestone (Colorado) Eagle, written by Christopher O'Brien, who is also author of the recently published book "The Mysterious Valley." O'Brien has conducted investigations of unusual animal deaths (UADs), UFO sightings and other anomalous phenomena in the San Luis Valley of Colorado for many years.]
On September 23, 1996, UPS driver Dave Jaramillo filed a report of an unusual animal death with investigator Chris O'Brien. Jaramillo and his family had been up on the family's property west of Antonito, Colorado on Sunday, September 22, when they discovered and videotaped a slain cow. The animal's tongue, rear-end, udder and one ear appeared to have been removed.
Jaramillo observed that "the cuts were real clean, with no tears or jagged edges." He further noted, "When a cow dies around here, the scavengers always tear it up in a couple of days. They haven't touched this one."
As is often the case with such unusual animal deaths, Jaramillo and his family could find no trace of tracks, footprints or blood anywhere around the carcass. But stranger still, they did find a pattern of crop circles impressed into the grass about 100 feet away. Three circles, each measuring about three feet in diameter, were arranged in a triangle twelve feet on each side. Around each circle were three smaller circles, four inches wide -- a total of twelve circles in the complete formation.
O'Brien commented after seeing Jaramillo's videotape that the circles appeared to be gently swirled into the grass, not pressed down flat as if by weight.
"This type of potential physical evidence is very rare," O'Brien wrote. "Besides the carcasses themselves, a vast majority of unusual animal death cases feature no additional clues whatsoever. Only a handful of cases on record feature these circular markings."
The San Luis Valley, which runs north to south from central Colorado into northern New Mexico, has a long history of strange phenomena and has been held sacred by the native tribes of the area.
Six other cattle mutilations were reported in northern New Mexico since August 1, O'Brien said. In three of the cases, UFO sightings were also reported.
O'Brien logged over 30 UFO sighting cases in the San Luis Valley during the summer of 1996, including two cases of extremely large objects moving "at fantastically slow speeds." One of the objects, witnessed by five people in the early morning of August 1 near La Veta Pass, was said to be over a mile in length.
Original file name: .CNI - Mute.Crop Circles in SLV
This file was converted with TextToHTML - (c) Logic n.v.