Aliens or a cult? New clues emerge in quest to solve ‘longest-running murder mystery’

New clues have emerged in the quest to solve America’s ‘longest-running murder mystery’ that has plagued ranchers since the 1970s.

Several states, from Kansas to Iowa and Oregon, have reported strange cases of dead cows sliced with surgical-like precision with their reproductive organs removed.

In many cases, not a drop of blood was found at the crime scenes.

The reports sparked fears about aliens mutilating the animals, but a former rancher from Oregon has suggested that the cows were killed by a ‘sophisticated network of humans.’

Colby Marshall, who found five murdered bulls with their tongues missing in 2017, believes cultists or a group using the animal parts for rituals are to blame.

‘They’re using some sort of toxin that causes the animal to go catatonic,’ he explained.

‘There’s no sign of struggle with the animal, so they dart them or something.’

Marshall continued to explain that the lack of blood is due to the culprits draining it from the animal’s tongue, which they then take ‘because that is the one piece of forensic evidence.’

‘I believe that, yes, there probably is aliens out there. And, you know, they’ve probably visited Earth,’ Marshall told Fox News Digital. 

‘Now, do I think they’re using their technology to come after free-range bulls in eastern Oregon? No, I don’t – I think they would have better uses of their technology than that.’ 

The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) filed its first report on the mutilated cows in 1974, sighting cases in Oklahoma and Nebraska. 

At least 10 dead cows appeared in Minnesota that same year and in 1975, thousands of cases surfaced in Colorado.

Bloodless cattle killings were also reported in 23 states, including Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Oklahoma, Montana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and California. 

The FBI investigated the deaths until 1978, but never found a culprit. 

But by the end of the decade, more than 10,000 cases of cattle mutilation had been recorded, mostly at small-scale ranches in the West and Midwest. 

Marshall has opened his own probe into the crimes, believing the murders were carried out by multiple people.

He explained that one person would’ve held the leg up, while another made an incision and cut around the testicles to remove them. 

‘Then you’ve got to hand all that material to somebody, because if you drop it on the ground, you’re going to cause tracks and you’re going to drop blood. there would be signs,’ he continued.

‘None of that stuff is present, so I think there is a team of people [that pull it off].

The murdered bulls also had no signs of liver or heart damage, and none of those vital organs were missing when Marshall stumbled upon the carcasses. 

And prior to the deaths, the cows ‘were eating and drinking, showing now signs of stress.’

Marshall and his team took blood samples from the bulls within 24 hours of their deaths and found no signs of chemicals in the animals’ blood streams.

‘Anything that metabolizes quickly in the bloodstream is not going to be detectable,’ he said.

‘That’s one of the things that I think is key to this is that this toxin they’re using metabolizes quickly.’

Marshall gave an example of a sedative used in horse racing, which puts the animals down for a few minutes so their hooves can be maintained.

‘It goes through the system within a few minutes, the animal gets up and they’re fine.

‘[In the case of the dead cows,] the animal doesn’t get up because they bleed them to death. At least that’s my theory.’

He also raised the idea that the carcasses were never devoured by predators.

‘The scavengers were not tearing the animals apart. The animals kind of melted into the ground,’ Marshall continued.

‘That was always a head scratcher for me.’

He continued to explain that the lack of blood may have been why predators left the dead cows alone. 

But Joseph Laycock, associate professor of religious studies at Texas State University, told DailyMail.com in 2023 that it’s unlikely Satanists are to blame because the vast majority don’t practice animal sacrifice and most of them actually condemn the practice.  

‘There is always the possibility of teenage delinquents harming animals in the name of Satan. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening in this case. Teenagers would probably have left tracks or other obvious evidence,’ he said.

That same year, six mutilated cow were found along a rural highway in Texas, all with their tongues cut out and not a drop of blood in sight.