LIVESTOCK KILLINGS PUZZLE ALL

By Byron Crawford
The Cincinnati Enquirer - Kentucky Edition
Page B1 - July 10, 2001

Leitchfield, KY - This is the kind of disgusting story that I
hate to write and you hate to read. But maybe someone who can
help will call.

Grayson County Sheriff Joe Brad Hudson is puzzled over recent
livestock killings and mutilations in southern Grayson County.

The latest occurred about seven weeks ago near Nolin Lake and is
still under investigation. A 2-month old Appaloosa colt
belonging to Mike and Rose Downs was found dead in a pasture.
The sheriff found a 1-inch hold in the animal's chest, but he
found no bullet exit wound or shell casing, and no blood around
the carcass. The colt's sexual organs were missing.

About a year ago, Leonard Bruner, the Downses' neighbor, found
one of his heifer calves dead in the edge of woods on his farm -
her sexual organs, tongue and one ear removed and no blood on
the animal or on the ground.

GOES BACK 25 YEARS

These are not the only unsolved cases of animal mutilations in
the area.

Moran Mudd, who lives in Sadler, about 10 miles south of
Leitchfield, lost a Hereford bull some years ago. When he found
the animal in a small stream bed on his farm, the bull's sexual
organs were missing. His hooves had also been removed so cleanly
that they looked as though they could have fallen off. But they
were lined up - the two front hooves in front of the two back
hooves - on a nearby flat rock. Several long hairs from the
bull's tail were hanging from a nearby tree limb about 4 feet
off the ground. There was no sign of a bullet wound and there
was no blood.

"Buzzards wouldn't even eat him," Mr. Mudd said. "It's weird."

Such mutilations have been occurring at irregular intervals
around Grayson County for at least 25 years, without
explanation. No arrests are known to have ever been made.

Although no running total has been kept, retired Sheriff Lonnie
Swift, who served from 1974 to 1977, remembers investigating two
mutilation cases similar to the most recent.

"I don't remember a lot of details about it, but I believe one
of the cases was a bull calf, and they cut off its left ear
right close to the skull, and cut out its sex organs, but there
was no blood anywhere," Mr. Swift said. "That was near
Caneyville. Seems like the other case involved more than one
animal, but I can't remember. We never did find out anything
about who did it."

Pete Pence, retired Leitchfield police chief and a former
sheriff's deputy, remembers a case involving multiple
mutilations of cattle in the 1970s, but he cannot recall
details.

CULT ACTIVITY CONSIDERED

Since the most recent mutilations, Grayson County Detective Roy
Clodfelter has questioned a few farmers who lost animals several
years ago, hoping to turn up clues that might help solve the
cases.

Sheriff Hudson says his office has considered the possibility of
cult activity, but officials have neither seen nor heard other
evidence suggesting the presence of a cult. He hopes someone
will come forward with information.

"It's like a no-motive murder," he said. "Once you get so far,
you're pretty much at a standstill."

Anyone with information may phone the Grayson County sheriff at
270-259-3024