Documents / FOIA release
This FBI file section compiles New Mexico State Police reports by Officer Gabe Valdez on 1978 cattle mutilations at Manuel Gomez's ranch near Dulce, a Los Alamos laboratory letter calling tissue findings inconclusive, and a December 1978 letter from Senator Harrison Schmitt asking the Justice Department to reopen an investigation. It also includes a Justice Department request that the FBI investigate 15 mutilations on Indian lands, and a report on an April 1979 Albuquerque conference that recommended central coordination of mutilation data.
“cattle mutilation”18 pages
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IN REPLY REFER TO: H-DO MAIL STOP: 881 Officer Gabe Valdez New Mexico State Police Post Office Box 212 Dulce, New Mexico 87528 Dear Cabe: Examination is now complete on the tissue samples from the recent incident at Dulce. Microscopic and bacteriologic studies were performed on three specimens consisting of heart muscle, skeletal muscle, and a bone fragment. ## FINDINGS (1) Heart Muscle: No microscopic changes of pathological significance were found. (2) Bone Fragment: No microscopic changes of significance were found. (3) Skeletal Muscle: Rod-shaped bacteria infiltrating connective tissue between muscle fibers were seen. Muscle fibers also contained occasional Sarcosporidia cysts. (4) Bacteriology: A specimen obtained from a heart chamber was cultured and shown to contain a rod-shaped organism identified as Clostridium species. Definitive classification was not made. ## INTERPRETATION No definite conclusion can be drawn from the observation of bacterial infiltration of muscle since the infiltration could be post-mortem. The demonstration of Clostridium in the heart chambers similarly cannot be definitively ascribed as pathological because of the potential for contamination. While the findings are not inconsistent with a diagnosis of infection, the possibility of contamination prevents the conclusion that infection was the cause of death. The observation of Sarcosporidia cysts is not remarkable and could be seen in most beef animals from this region on careful examination I doubt that you will find these observations helpful in your investigation because the bacteriological examination is inconclusive. However, we will support you in any way we can, and you are welcome to visit our laboratory to discuss your findings at your convenience. The offer for instrumentation support also remains open. If we can be of further assistance, please call. Warm personal regards. DFP:ES Sincerely yours , Donald F. Petersen Alternate Health Division Leader
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FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 27 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.