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 media said investigators would come as soon as they were called," complained Dennis Martinez, who discovered the carcass "within 300 yards of my place." in Truchas.
"It is sad news," he said of law enforcement's apparent lack of interest in the case, which from all reports is a classic. State Police called the county livestock agent and DA Eloy Martinez, but sent no officiers to the scene.
His wife Francis, more cynical, was nonchalant about the absence of official 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 personnel and what she sees as their attitude about the small mountain 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 country mutilations lore began between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. Saturday morning.
"I heard the dogs barking," he explained of that time, though "the thought of mutilations was far away from my mind."
He explained that as he has a number 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 turn back" rather than chasing the cows as usual.
When he began his day, he said, at approximately 7 a.m., his brother, Ernesto Martinez and "another Ernesto Martinez," the Ernesto 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 lately.
"The cow belonged to Juan Antonio Rael and it was a female," Dennis Martinez said.
"I saw what appeared to be a mutilation. it had little blood which was only visible where the tongue used to be. The tongue, he said, had been sliced at its "roots," precisely.
Right after the viewing, the state police reportedly were called.
The night before had been "peaceful" he reported, except for the alightly peculiar behavior of the barking dogs.
Everyone believed the find to be a good one, as they had "come in time." Dennis Martinez and his wife both said a number of Truchas residents had reported seeing "orange lights" in the sky that night, some flying over Truchas cemetery.
After the authorities were notified, Dennis Martinez said, "I stuck around from 7. a.m. until 2:30, making sure" that no investigators were coming.
He admitted he was "a little bit scared" of the mutilation which occurred so near his home. He explained he had been in the Colorado Springs area when a number of mutilations had taken place there.
"The way its done, when you see one, its a little bit different", than when you just hear about one, he explained.
The eyes of the fresh cow, he noted, attracted attention among observers.
The villain, he said, "tried to scrape at it," as if he or it were trying to get a tissue sample "from the whlie part 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 article for Read Street, a news publication, recently on the phenomena entitled "Burgers for the Gods."
"The case itself didn't seem unusual, except for the fact that there were wolves in the area," Bockman said. He reported one neighbor'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 attended to immediately by law enforcement personel.
"I don't blame them for being upset," he said of the witnesses, explaining that he is seeking more funding for the FBI's study into the problem.
"That's one reason I got the language" of a funding request recently announced to support the FBI investigation, Senator Schmitt explained. "I want the FBI to be more deeply involved."
He said "more coordinating of local investigations" is needed at this time and that the "central point of the investigation," he believes now, should be the FBI, though some centralization may be achieved by the District Attorney.
"My understanding was that FBI agent Sam Jones was assigned to coordinate law enforcement efforts on mutilations," Senator Schmitt said of his analysis of what transpired at a recent conference of law enforcement personnel 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 understanding was wrong, but my understanding was that the FBI would be the coordinating agency," he said.
When told that Ken Rommel, the investigator the District Attorney hired after receiving a grant to pay his salary, had yet to contact Gabe Valdez, the State Policeman who has the most experience in investigating mutilations. Senator Schmitt said Valdez' experience should prove valuable to any investigator.
"That doesn't sound like complete investigating," Schmitt said of the omission of Valdez' participation.
In light of the lack of investigation of the Truchas episode, the Sun has received a number of reports from confidential sources about dissatisfaction with the course Rommel's investigation is taking.
Persons who have spoken to the investigator complain he is "brusque," or "too flippant," or he doesn't take their ideas or their reports seriously, and they'd rather not discuss with him further mutilation phenomena.
Other persons express fears that not only Rommel, but the District Attorney and the State Police, are working together to cover up whatever is behind the mutilations, and rumors are spreading fast.
"Eloy Martinez went to the State Police and told them that Gabe Valdez is not to have any part in this investigation," one serious Valdez fan told the Sun.
Another version of that story is that a "muzzle" has been placed on Valdez.
Both stories were denied Tuesday by State Police Chief Martin Vigil and by the district attorney.
"I have not put out any orders to that effect," Vigil said. He explained that he has asked that information be channelled to Rommel, but if a state policeman should get a call on a suspected mutilation, he should "go on over there."
The district attorney, too, denies the existence of a gag order on any state police officer.
"I never have, and never will, impose any kind of a gag rule on any law enforcement officer because I don't have that authority had even if I did it would be impractical for me to impose any form of gag rule," he said.
Of the alleged meeting with Vigil, he said, he believed that the story grew from an actual conversation he had with the chief.
"I think that the meeting was only my request to the chief that since we now have a designated project director in charge that is would probably be best to have everything relating to mutilations funnelled through that investigator.
"If for no other reason, the grand terms and conditions calls for that kind of concept."
Martinez said a teletype received by every affiliate State Police officer of the state assigned Richard C. de Baca as liaison officers and Rommel and that "relates to the notion that if there is a mute in their responsibility that hopefully they will contact Rommel."
Of Rommel's failure to appear at the Truchas suspected mutilation, he said he is "reasonably assured that Ken is looking into it."
"This happened on a weekend and its one of those instances where I believe an effort was made to contact Rommel with no success."
Of the allegations of a cover-up, Martinez said, "The only thing I can really state I would flatly deny basis for supporting the contention that there is a cover-up if for no other reason that it would put the grant in jeopardy."
He advised those with such contentions to "apply to the grantee, the Law Enforcement Assistance Association," with that complaint. The LEAA, he contends, would "support" the complainant "one hundred per cent."