© Tom Murphy/Trinidad TimesKilling is similar to thousands of other cases in North America in which cattle have been found mutilated under unusual circumstances.
Trinidad, Colorado - A cattle rancher made a horrific and mysterious discovery Sunday when he found the carcass of one of his cattle that was missing its udders and other female parts.
No one is sure what killed the cow on a pasture near the Purgatoire River, but Trinidad rancher Mike Duran said he definitely finds the death unusual.
Duran, 49, said Monday that after the cow had been missing for two days, he went to look for it in a pasture where he runs cattle a mile west of the town of Weston near Colorado 12.
This is not the first time Duran has found a mutilated cow on his ranch.
In 1995, Duran said he found a cow that had been mutilated the exact same way on the same pasture.
"The other cow's udders were snipped off the same way. It's hard to imagine what or who could have done this to me again," Duran said.
The mutilation in 1995 never has been solved.
"I last saw her Friday. She's an older cow so I thought she may have died.
"On Sunday, I spotted her near the (Purgatoire) river bottom and went and looked at her. She was on her side and it looked a little odd.
"When I took a closer look I saw that her udders had been removed," Duran said.
The cow had its udders cleanly cut off with no blood on or around the carcass, Duran said.
"It was a perfect circle almost like a laser cut," he said. "It's not like a knife. it seemed to be cut and sealed at the same time," he said.
Comment: Could it be "Spring Heeled Jack" again?