FBI file: Animal Mutilation, Animal Mutilation Part 05

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

# They Held a Mutilatic

By GAIL OLSON Of the SUN's Santa Fe Bureau

The county's "freshest" mutilation report so far reached State Police within five hours of the kill last Saturday, but nobody came to investigate.

"I was really disgusted. The news media said investigators would come as soon as they were called." complained Dennis Martinez, who discovered the carcass "within 300 yards of my place." in Truchas.

"It is sad news," he said of law enforcement's apparent lack of interest in the case, which from all reports is a classic. State Police called the county livestock agent and DA Eloy Martinez, but sent no officers to the scene.

His wife Francis, more cynical, was nonchalant about the absence of official investigators. She reported that as of 4 p.m. Tuesday, no investigator had been seen in Truchas.

"They don't come here very often not unless something is hanging from a viga," she explained of area law enforcement personnel and what she sees as their attitude about the small mountain village.

Ken Rommel, hired through a $50,000 federal grant to investigate cattle mutilations in Rio Arriba county, had not been on the scene as of late Tuesday afternoon and was not available in his office.

Dennis Martinez said the latest chapter in county mutilations lore began between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Saturday morning.

"I heard the dogs barking," he explained of that time, though "the

thought of mutilations was far away from my mind."

He explained that as he has a number of "open fences" that result in "cattle going through property." The only thing he noticed about the barking dogs was they would "go to the boundary of the fence and turn back" rather than chasing the cows as usual.

When he began his day, he said, at approximately 7 a.m., his brother, Ernesto Martinez and "another Ernesto Martinez," the Ernesto Martinez who owns the property upon which the cow was found, were at his door.

"Come and see it," they invited, asking him to bring his gun, as wolves have been sighted in the area lately.

"The cow belonged to Juan Antonio Rael and it

was a female," Dennis Martinez said.

"I saw what appeared to be a mutilation. It had little blood which was only visible where the tongue used to be. The tongue, he said, had been sliced at its "roots," precisely.

Right after the viewing, the state police reportedly were called.

The night before had been "peaceful" he reported, except for the slightly peculiar behavior of the barking dogs.

Everyone believed the find to be a good one, as they had "come in time." Dennis Martinez and his wife both said a number of Truchas residents had reported seeing "orange lights" in the sky that night, some flying over the Truchas cemetery.

After the authorities were notified, Dennis Martinez said, "I stuck

# But No One Came.

around from 7 a.m. until 2:30, making sure" that no investigators were coming.

The eyes of the fresh cow, he noted, attracted attention among observers.

He admitted he was "a little bit scared" of the mutilation which occurred so near his home. He explained he had been in the Colorado Springs area when a number of mutilations had taken place there.

The villain, he said, "tried to scrape at it," as if he or it were trying to get a tissue sample "from the white part of the eye." The rectal area, the udder and the ears were removed from the beast

"The way its done, when you see one, its a little bit different", then when you just hear about one, he explained.

with surgical precision.

Dennis Martinez said Neil Bockman, a Santa Fe photographer and filmmaker looking into the phenomena, appeared on the scene. Bockman wrote an article for Read Street, a news publication, recently on the phenomena entitled "Burgers for the Gods."

"The case itself didn't seem unusual, except for the fact that there were wolves in the area," Bockman said. He reported one neighbor's dog chewed "the backend" of the cow.

He was puzzled that law enforcement officials had not appeared on the scene.

U.S. Senator Harrison Schmitt Tuesday also expressed concern that the investigation was not attended to immediately by law enforcement personnel.

"I don't blame them for

being upset," he said of the witnesses, explaining that he is seeking more funding for the FBI's study into the problem.

"That's one reason I got the language" of a funding request recently announced to support the FBI investigation, Senator Schmitt explained. "I want the FBI to be more deeply involved."

He said "more coordinating of local investigations" is needed at this time and that the "central point of the investigation," he believes now, should be the FBI, though some centralization may be achieved by the District Attorney.

"My understanding was that FBI agent Sam Jones was assigned to coordinate law enforcement efforts on mutilations." Senator Schmitt said of his analysis of

what transpired at a recent conference of law enforcement personnel involved in mutilation investigations.

"The fact that the District Attorney's grant was pursued didn't change that." he said further, of Martinez's federally funded investigation.

"Maybe my understanding was wrong, but my understanding was that the FBI would be the coordinating agency," he said.

When told that Ken Rommel, the investigator the District Attorney hired after receiving a grant to pay his salary, had yet to contact Gabe Vaidez, the State Policeman who has the most experience in investigating mutilations, Senator Schmitt said Valdez' experience should

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