◆ SpookStack

around from 7 a.m. until a ee dee ee en et OQ 7 They, * By GAIL OLSON: Of the SUN's Sante 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 investigators would come as 800 a3 Wey we called,’’ Dennis Martinez, who @iscovered the carcass “within 300 yards of my piace." in Truchas. “It is sad news," he said of law = enforcement's apparent lack of interest in the case, which from al) reports is a classic. State Police called the county: livestock — agent and DA G10yY a TUeZz, but seni Pes] officers to tne scene. His wife Francis, more © eynical, was nonchalant about the absence of of- media said - complained © Ned Pl ficial 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 persome] and what she gees as thelr attitude about the small mountain <fi+ = 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 Sa.m. Saturday morning. “] heard the dogs barking," he explained of that time, though “the tinez,"’ the O “ome thought of mutilations was far away trom my mind.” He explained that as he has a humber 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 tum back" rather than chasing _ ie COWS as Usual. When he began his day, he said, at approximately 7 +«a.m., his brother, Ernesto ‘Martinez and “another. Ernesto Mar. 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 jately. “The cow belonged to Juan Antonio Rael and it Ernesto . Held a Mutilens%- .Was a female,” ‘Dennis Martinez said. “I saw what appeared to be a mutilation. Nh hed Httle blood which wes only visible where the tonue usec to be. The tongue. ne said, had been sliced at lis “roots,”* precisely. Right after the viewirs, the state police reporicdly were called. Tne night before iid been “peaceful he reported, except for the slightly peculiar behavior of the barking dogs. Everyone believed the find to be a good one, ss they had "come ir. time.” - Dennis Martinez and his wife both said a number of Truchas residents had reporied seeing “oranze lights’’ in the sky that night, some flying over the Truchas cemetery. After the authorities were notified, Dennis Martinez said, “T stuck what ‘transpired at a 2:30, making sure’ that no investigators were coming. He admitted he was “a lite bit scared" of the mutilation which occurred so nezcr his home. He explained he had been in the Colorado Springs area when @& number of Tutilations had taken place there. ‘The way its done, when you see one, its a little bit diviereni", then when you jus: hear about one, he explained. The eyes of the fresh cow, he noted, attracted a(tention pervers. among ob- The villain, he said, “tried to scrape at it,” as if he or it were trying to ge. a tissue sample “trom . ihe while pari of the eye.” The rectal area, the udder and the ears were removed from the beast with surgical precision. Dennis Martinez said Neil Bockman, a Santa Fe photographer and film- maker looking into the phenomena, appeared on the scene. Bockman wrote an articie for Read Street, a news publication, recently on the phenomena entitled “Burgers for the Gods." “The case itself didn't gear unusual, except for seer the fact that there were wolves in the area,"’ Bock- man said. He reported one Heighbor’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 atiended to immediately by law = enforcement personnel. “J don't blame them for . ’ Being upset.” he said of the witnesses, explaining that he Js seeking more funding for the FBI's study into the problem. “That's one reason 1 got the language" of a funding request recently an- nounced to support the FBI investigation, Senator Schmitt explained. °T want the FBI to be more deeply involved.” He gaid “more eoor- dinating of local in- vestigauons” is needed ut this time and that the “central polnt of the in- westigation,"’ he believes now, should be the FEI, though some cen- tralization may be achieved by the District Attorney. “My understanding was that FBI agent Sam Jones was assigned to coordinaie law enforcement efforia on mutilations," Senator Sch- mitt said of his anayleis of recent conference o7 law enforcement personne! 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” wun- serstanding was wrong. but my understanding was that the FEI would be the coordinating agency," he sald. : “ 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 in- . vestigating mutilations, Senator Schmitt said Vaidez’ experience should Cantina an Para -_.