Nightmare Find!

[M-Taliesin]

Howdy Folks!
I hunted yesterday, and found a whole lot of lost coins. On my way to another location, there was a fire that could be seen all over the Denver metroplex area, and I got a couple of photos. But what I found at one elementary school is the stuff of nightmares. It was better suited for a Stephen King novel than a school for young kids!

First, the positive stuff! During the day I found 172 coins. Best finds were three wheat pennies dated 1934, 1947 and 1957.
My take on the day was:
50 Quarters = $12.50
18 Nickels = $0.90
19 Dimes = $1.90
85 Pennies = $0.85
Total = $16.15
Coin Count = 172 Coins, not including wheats or foreign coins.

Along the way I found 5 Canadian coins, including a nickel dated 1867-1967. I'd never seen a centennial coin from Canada, so that was a treat in itself. I also found a $10 Peso Mexican coin.

On my way to another location, I saw smoke rising from a big fire to the north. I travelled over there to learn a brand new electrical sub station was blazing away. Flames roared 50 feet or better into the air, but the smoke could be seen all over the Colorado Front Range anywhere near Denver. That electrical substation was brand new, less than 2 weeks old. Guess they'll need to build another one because this one ain't gonna be much use to anybody!

Now for the truly horrific find of the day. You might want to skip this particular part of my tale as it is pretty gruesome.
It is the type of thing you never anticipated finding when you started detecting, and one I wish I hadn't made.


While detecting at a local elementary school tot lot, I was finding quite a few coins. I hadn't been to that particular location in several months, and from the look of things, nobody else had hunted it either. There were some 7 or 8 young Latino kids playing nearby, but they generally ignored me, and I was happy to be left alone to do my detecting.

After maybe 45 minutes to an hour, they approached me as a group. "Here we go!" I thought to myself. I figured they'd be starting in with all the usual questions about what I was doing, and could they help and could they have whatever I found. That sort of thing. Instead, one of them said "There's a dead animal over there. I think it might be a skunk or cow!"
Cow Maybe I misheard the kid, because we don't get too many deceased cows in the metro area.
"Show me where it is." I told the girl who appeared to be speaking for the group.

We went over and she pointed to a mound of wood chips at the end of a slide. I could see black and white fur sticking out from between the chips. I bid the kids to stand away while I reached down with my probe to move chips aside. It appeared to be a cat. I hooked my coil under the body and flipped it out of the wood chips and sure enough, it was a cat. Or what was left of one. It appeared to be maybe 6 months to a year old cat that had been mutilated. The tail was missing and it had been decapitated. Looking at the pile of wood chips, there was no blood where it was originally laying. This means it was killed elsewhere, and some sick psycho had brought it to the school and buried it in wood chips directly at the end of the slide so some unsuspecting kid couldn't help but discover this horrific thing. Who would do such a thing? Who would not only so brutally abuse a small animal, but put the body where some kid couldn't help but stumble across it?

I told the group of kids to keep clear of the area while I called the police department to report an animal mutilation.
To my surprise, an officer arrived fairly quickly and I led him to where the animal was. The officer asked us to move away as he put on some rubber gloves and started pawing through the wood chips to see if any other evidence might exist. The officer called for a camera car to come take photos, and he removed the carcass of that poor cat.

For the rest of my hunt, I was certainly off my game. I didn't find any silver. I didn't find any gold. I also couldn't concentrate on detecting. It was like being on auto-pilot as I continued to find many coins, but just couldn't shake my rising anger at whoever did that awful thing.

Never in my wildest dreams would I expect to come across something like this. They don't warn you about that sort of discovery when you shop for your first detector. They don't warn you that you might find something truly horrible while on the trail of treasure. And you certainly don't expect it in a nice city school with really great kids.

It has been my most excellent pleasure to make many terrific finds. There have been some that were not so terrific, and some that end up in the trash can after my hunt. But this particular find is one I never dreamed of making, and hope not to ever make another like it.

Blessings,
M-Taliesin

 

[M-Taliesin]

I hate cruelity to anyone if your going to kill something or someone then do it don't make them suffer that is just warped.

How do you know it was torturedMan,do yall hear voices too?

Howdy Pard!
To answer your question, the odds are actually better than 50/50 it was tortured.
Which went first? The tail or the head? If the tail went first, there's your torture.
And yeah, I hear lots of voice.

The voice of reason, the voice of compassion, and the voice of empathy.
And my wife's voice, who works at the sheriff's office, and the instruction she
shared regarding animal mutilation often being the first step by psychopaths
on their way to becoming serial killers; Jeffery Dalmer being just one example.

While some seem to hold the idea that an animal might have killed that young
cat, I still haven't seen any explaination for the clean cuts made which indicate a knife was used.
Ergo, logical progression of thought is, somebody mutilated this animal using a knife.
Likely took the tail first (odds better than 50/50), therefore subjecting the critter to torture.

Blessings,
M-Taliesin

 

[kuger]

wELL,i HOPE NOT,AND i GUESS YOU DID THE RIGHT THING WITH CONTACTING THE p.d.Sorry caps lock)If it werent for the tail missing,I would stick to my theory

 

[ivan salis]

note while a head kill / eatten MIGHT be a animal --seldom is a tail eatten --too boney no meat on it.

to take the head and tail * the less meaty parts and leave the "meaty" parts , from a "animal killed it" point of view simply does not make sense. -- think of going to a food store what parts of the cow do you get --the head & tail or the "meaty" parts ? common sense tells you somethings not "right" on that .

however head and tail are often "animal trophy parts"-- bull fighters take ears and tails of animals they kill as "trophys"--- deer heads (males) and tails (females) are also taken as "trophys" as well

I sadly believe this poor cat was placed in such a way that a child would --"slide down into it" and the horror of finding it was meant to scare the children -- giving the sicko who placed it there a "kick" -- he might have even been "watching" to see the "horror" occur.

over time killing "animals" just doesn't "do it" anymore for them and these sick twisted folks move up the food chain to humans -- often targeting kids since they are "easy targets"-- I can not stress this enough *** there might be a soon to be serial killer lurking around there *** be very very careful.

 

[txconservative]

Nice finds..


The cat story really bothered me...

People are so sick.... Once they start with ANIMALS, they will move onto HUMANS....The kids should really be careful...

There's a special place in HELL for people who torture animals.

 

[cellar dweller]

I was really impressed with the small jewelry finds. You Have that mxt tweaked to the max . Nice job. Sorry about the cat.

 

[fishkiller41]

Great finds,sorry about the cat,buzzards out there man!!
The oil/coolant in those huge substation transformers burns real good..Too bad the power Co. will pass the damage costs on to their customers..

 

[marinedad]

mel, maybe your moriduchi kid is sending you a message.

 

[Steve in PA]

I would say you had a day to remember, though maybe not for all the right reasons

 

[kuger]

JFY,quote from a very reliable source









Within urban and suburban areas in California, however, some coyotes have adapted to residential neighborhoods, parks, and open spaces, and seemingly have lost their fear of humans. This may be a result of behavioral changes that have occurred over several generations of coyotes, in localities where predator control is no longer practiced. Coyotes thrive in such areas because food, water, and shelter are abundant, and coyotes living in these environments may come to associate humans with food




Prey Remains. When prey killed by coyotes is found and examined before it can be consumed or scavenged by other species, the appearance of the carcass may give clear evidence that coyotes were responsible. Coyotes usually kill small mammalian prey such as rabbits, young kid goats, and small lambs by biting them through the head or neck. The size and spacing of puncture wounds from the coyotes’ canine teeth is sometimes apparent; the spacing between a coyote’s canine teeth is typically 1 to 1-3/8 inches. A coyote’s carnassial (“cheek”) teeth are capable of making clean, knifelike cuts through carcasses, as coyotes sometimes dismember prey in order to transport portions to their den to feed pups. Municipal authorities and homeowners have sometimes found remains of dead house cats and mistakenly assumed they were mutilated by people practicing animal sacrifices, when in fact they were killed by coyotes.

 

[schoser]

No animal left that thing there...had to be from one of our wonderfull sick subhumans we have roaming the world around us.... my take. on the lighter side though, nice finds!

 

[M-Taliesin]

JFY,quote from a very reliable source

Howdy Kuger!
Thats a real informative article, and I'd think it very possible you may be correct in your theory on the cause being animal related.
I'll concede this is possible.

But why would a coyote, or any other predator, prefer to bury a carcass where cover was thin, and then need to move wood chips to cover that carcass at the end of the slide, when underneath the slide itself there was an abundance of wood chips? I mean, it would have placed the cat in a place where wood chips were relatively scarce, but a depression existed from all the kids that used the slide in the past year, but to cover the animal, need to move wood chips from elsewhere to cover it? The area immediately around the end of that slide was thin on wood chips, unlike under tot lot structures there was much more abundant wood chips that would be a great deal handier for burying their prey. It seems unlikely. In addition, they'd have been 'out in the open' while burying their prey, making their activity evident to other eyes (human and predator alike) that they are trying to hide their kill from to begin with.

In any event, whether the predator was human or animal, it was still a gruesome find, especially for a group of little kids.

Blesssings,
M-Taliesin

 

[cw0909]

head and tail taken for "trophy" most likely * be aware many serial killers
"practice" on helpless animals before moving up the food chain -- the sicko placed this animal to "terrify" the children to "feed" off their fear and horror --cops best keep a close eye on this area.

this is not something to take lightly.

i have to agree too, would a wild animal bury its meal, around that much human scent, and activity
hit the button to quick, nice finds

 

[kuger]

head and tail taken for "trophy" most likely * be aware many serial killers
"practice" on helpless animals before moving up the food chain -- the sicko placed this animal to "terrify" the children to "feed" off their fear and horror --cops best keep a close eye on this area.

this is not something to take lightly.

i have to agree too, would a wild animal bury its meal, around that much human scent, and activity
hit the button to quick, nice finds

Very good points M Tal,and ones that I do not have answers for,perhaps you are correct in your theory,which I would hope that if you are the sicko is apprehended,and punished to the fullest extent of the law.Chances are in these types of situations they repeat,they malicios deranged acts so hopefully somebody is watching and will link it all together.As I said you did the right thing.


I will say again COYOTES do not bury there prey,its a feline trait,they will do it %90 of the time,often returning to it later,sometimes not.
As far as the eating of the head and tail,those are the easiest to dismember quickly.Animals dont have a "full",reaction(your dog)so if the animal had already ate but had the oportunity to take this cat it did,but wanted to save it for later.
As far as human scent urban wildlife are accustomed to it,its all around them