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