Part 2
By David Perkins
Chris O'Brien estimates that there have probably been well over 100 mutilations in the greater San Luis Valley area since 1976. Cattleman simply stopped reporting the incidents when they perceived that law officials were totally ineffectual in dealing with the situation.
A random sampling of O'Briens files and incidents reported in the media reveals an intriguing pattern:
November, 1992 Witnesses observe strange glimmering lights in the sky the night before Thanksgiving in the Baca Ranch area north of the Dunes. The same night a rancher in neighboring Costilla County reports a mutilated cow. Luna Bontempi, who saw the lights three different times over the Dunes, describes them as "very fast... unlike any type of plane or helicopter. You could see them in groups of three or four, like the points of a triangle. They'd bounce around for awhile then reform into a triangle."
November, 1992 Las Animas County Sheriff Lou Girodo investigates two "classic mutilations" 35 miles west of Trinidad, Colorado. The cows' sexual 
organs, eyes, udders, lips and tongues had been removed with "surgical precision." Sheriff Girodo, who has investigated the mutilations for 20 years, has told the media: "It's very possible that these mutilations are being done by creatures from outer space... I'm not saying it is spaceships, but you prove to me it isn't."
December 9th, 1992 Five witnesses observed "two laser-like ovals" streak in from the northeast and appear to land in a cottonwood grove in the Baca Ranch area.
December 21st, 1992 At 2:30 P.M. two Baca residents see "a bell-shaped object" against the mountains to the east. "It was silver in color and looked unreal."
February, 1993 A man at the Crestone campground has his car illuminated from above by spotlight beams that "try and get him out the car." Two women see a "bell-shaped object" pass over their car near Mosca in the daytime.
March, 1993 Witnesses see two unidentified objects traveling down the western side of the San Luis Valley. Eight minutes later, military jets are seen tracing the objects' path.
April 28th, 1993 While interviewing Costilla County ranger, Emilio Lobato, concerning 17 mutilations he'd had since 1975, Chris O'Brien learns of a mutilated cow in Chama Canyon the previous night. O'Brien investigates and determines that the animal had been mutilated sometime between 2:30 A.M. when the rancher had checked it (after it had given birth to a calf) and 5 A.M. when it was found. The incident occurred 130 feet from the ranch house. The rancher's "normally voracious" dogs were silent that evening.
In a subsequent interview with retired Costilla County Sheriff, Ernest Sandoval, O'Brien learns that the sheriff investigated unusual lights and helicopter reports in the vicinity of mutilations in the mid-70's. One report involved Chama residents being chased by low flying helicopters on the night of several mutilations in the area. Sandoval reveals that he and a deputy once saw a cow "floating in a beam of light" across the road in front of them. The Sheriff's assessment? "There has to be government involvement. Who else has the technology?"
November, 1993 - January 1994 "The NORAD Event". On the evening of November
30th, multiple witnesses saw a "full-moon sized object" streak into the valley from the northeast and appear to descend in the La Garita area on the Valley's west side. Two separate ex-military observers agreed that the object "changed shape, direction, velocity, size and color" during its flight.
The following evening witnesses observed through infrared light vision equipment two formations of "apparent" helicopters combing the area where the object went down. The craft were seen shooting off flares as if signaling one another. An hour later, the same witnesses shot a video showing what appears to be three helicopters escorting a large unblinking light moving at slow speeds over the area.
On December 13th, a Crestone resident reported a "glowing white orb" falling to the ground near Hooper. The following day a bull was found mutilated in Costilla County. O'Brien, who investigated the report, noted that the animal was missing its rectum and testicles and the cuts appeared "cauterized." Broken tree branches were observed above where the animal lay. Hair and a small amount of blood were found on the tips of the branches. The same night, a rancher in Eagle Colorado, (170 miles north) found a cow dead and missing the hide off the left side of its face and an "8 inch plug out of the brisket."
After a flurry of giant fireball sightings, mysterious booms and "phantom forest fires" during late December and early January, the "NORAD event" culminated on January 12th, 1994. At 3:40 P.M. a NORAD official contacted the Rio Grande Sheriff's office and reported "a significant explosion" logged at 2:55 P.M. in the Greenie Mountain/ Rock Creek Canyon area by a NORAD scope operator in Cheyenne Mountain. A satellite designed to detect missile launches had picked up "an intense heat source." The Sheriff's department launched a two day search of the area by land and air. They found nothing.
At 4:55 P.M. the afternoon of the NORAD call Lt. Col. (Ret.) Jimmy Lloyd, a 30 year veteran fighter pilot , reported seeing "a battle-ship sized group of 6 or 7 glowing green objects in close formation" streak over him near Florence and appear to go down in the San Luis Valley. According to Lloyd, the objects were definitely not meteors or any type of conventional craft.
Undersheriff Brian Norta, who coordinated the search, reported that multiple witness had seen "a soft green light falling out of the sky" in the same area on the evening of January 13th. On January 16th, a man saw three B-52 bombers flying low over the area. The next night, sheriff's deputies again visited the site to investigate reports of "blue flares." Again they found nothing.On the evening of January 18th, Deputy Mike James saw three helicopters flying low over the area. The following night deputies investigated reports of "loud explosions; in the area and could not determine their origin.
Chris O'Brien speculates that Majory McCouch, the FEMA supervisor of the NORAD scope operator, gave the Sheriff's Department "what may have been mis-directions: to search a rugged area almost 25 miles away from where the event probably occurred. Meanwhile, could the military have spent four days searching and /or attending to the real "situation" on Greenie Mountain.
Veteran UFO and mutilation researcher Tom Adams, of Paris, Texas points out the eerie similarities between the "NORAD event' and the "Gallup incident" which occurred exactly eleven years earlier...
Read Part 3 of Heart of Weirdness.
Back to Channel-Z 
Back to Z-Files
Copyright 1994, David Perkins