NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, March 17, 2022
‘No logical explanation’ in cattle mutilation
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — A muti-
lated bull mysteriously
turned up dead in February
at a ranch in Bear Valley in
Grant County with surgically
removed body parts.
According to a Feb. 28
entry of the Oregon State
Police log, a rancher called a
John Day Wildlife Trooper to
report a bull had been killed
and mutilated on his ranch
with its testicles, scrotum,
tongue and lips precisely
removed.
Mat Carter, a rancher from
the Crown Cattle Company,
said he reported the muti-
lation to the state’s wildlife
trooper after discovering the
dead bull roughly a quarter
to half a mile from his house.
The cause of death is
unknown.
When Carter found the
bull, it had likely been dead
a few days and was already
decomposing. The 24-hour
window during which an
autopsy could have been
performed on the body had
passed.
According to Carter, there
were no signs of vultures,
coyotes, or other scavengers
around the bull.
“There’s no tracks; there’s
no signs, there’s no nothing,”
Carter said.
Clancy Roth/Contributed Photo, File
A mutilated cow on a ranch in Deschuttes County in 2020. A similar case occurred in Grant County February 2022.
He said it is hard to imag-
ine anyone would have come
on to his property, killed a
bull, drained its blood, and
then cleanly cut out specific
body parts.
According to Carter,
with no evidence or leads to
follow up on for law enforce-
ment, the incident remains a
mystery.
And this was not the first
cow mutilation on his ranch,
Carter said.
Several years ago, Carter
said he was almost sure one
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of his cows had been muti-
lated. However, he said,
there was no way to say with
certainty because he did
not get to it quickly enough
before flies and other scav-
engers made it impossible to
determine what happened.
Baker City detective stays on paid leave
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
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He said a similar situation
occurred in August, which is
why he tries to inspect cattle
deaths a little more closely
when they occur.
Indeed, Carter’s situa-
tion is not unique. Accord-
ing to FBI records, since the
1970s, thousands of killings
and mutilations of cattle have
happened across the U.S.
Last year Wheeler County
had five cases while Harney
County had four in four
years, with the previous two
occurring in May and June.
The cases, the data
reports, are similar to
Carter’s case.
A cow or bull is found
dead in a remote area with no
signs of how someone might
have made it onto a property
undetected. Usually, authori-
ties find footprints, tire tracks
or fingerprints. There is very
little — if any — spilled
blood and no visible puncture
wounds, bullets or strangula-
tion marks.
The bizarre nature of
the mutilation and lack of
evidence makes it all the
more baffling and frustrat-
ing for Carter.
Meanwhile, theories about
who is behind the cow muti-
lations, be it aliens, demons
or cults.
However, in the thousands
of cases since the 1970s, no
one has ever been caught.
For his part, Carter said he
does not try to speculate on it,
nor does he believe in UFOs
or any other kind of strange
phenomenon.
“It’s really odd, Carter
said. “There’s no logical
explanation.”
BAKER CITY — Baker
City police detective Shan-
non Regan remains on
paid administrative leave
more than seven months
after Police Chief Ty Duby
removed her from active duty.
Duby made that deci-
sion in July 2021 after Jim
A. Schaeffer, the La Grande
attorney representing Shawn
Quentin Greenwood, who
was accused of first-degree
murder in the January 2020
shooting death of Angela
Parrish in Baker City, claimed
Regan violated Greenwood’s
constitutional rights by listen-
ing to five phone calls that
Greenwood, who was in the
Baker County Jail, made to
Schaeffer’s cellphone in 2020.
On June 25, 2021, Schaef-
fer filed a motion seeking to
dismiss all charges against
Greenwood.
After hearings in Baker
County Circuit Court on
Aug. 13 and Aug. 24, Judge
Matt Shirtcliff ruled Regan,
the lead detective in investi-
gating the fatal shooting of
Parrish, would not be allowed
to testify during Greenwood’s
trial due to the phone call
issue.
Although Shirtcliff denied
Schaeffer’s motion to dismiss
all charges against Green-
wood, the judge did prohibit
Baker County District Attor-
ney Greg Baxter from using at
trial any evidence that Regan
collected after Sept. 14, 2020,
the day that her computer was
used to access and listen to
the five phone calls, accord-
ing to a forensic investigation
by the Oregon Department of
Justice.
Baxter did not contest the
claim that Regan listened to
the five calls.
Greenwood, then 50,
ended up pleading no contest
to three lesser charges on
Sept. 3, 2021, five days before
the trial was to start.
The no contest plea had
the same effect as a convic-
tion.
Shir tcliff sentenced
Greenwood to a total of
seven-and-a-half year in
prison on the three convic-
tions, which include crimi-
nally negligent homicide, a
Class B felony, first-degree
burglary, a Class A felony,
and attempting to elude
law enforcement, a Class C
felony.
None of the three charges
for which Greenwood was
convicted carries a manda-
tory minimum sentence,
so he will be eligible for a
reduction in sentence based
on good behavior and other
factors.
Duby said the city can’t
keep Regan on paid leave
indefinitely.
“It’s a tough situation,”
Duby said. “At some point the
city is going to have to move.”
He said Regan, a 17-year
Baker City police officer, is
at the top of the salary sched-
ule for detectives, which has
a monthly salary of $6,066.
Duby said he has not heard
anything from the Oregon
Department of Justice about
its investigation of Regan
resulting from the phone call
issue.
Baker City Manager Jon
Cannon said the city is work-
ing with its attorney on how
best to handle the situation
with Regan.
“It’s a personnel matter
so I’m limited on what I can
say about it,” Cannon said on
Thursday, March 10. “We
don’t want it to be an indef-
inite time period to have an
employee in this status. We
want to respect all parties
that are involved, and to take
whatever actions are appro-
priate to resolve the matter.”
Duby said Dan Thenell,
a Portland attorney, is repre-
senting Regan.
Thenell had not returned a
phone message by press time
for this story.
In Regan’s absence, Zach
Thatcher is working as the
department’s major crimes
detective, Duby said.
Duby now is looking
to replace Chris Sells, the
department’s other detec-
tive, who left recently to
take a police job in Ada
County, Idaho.
IN BRIEF
Lawsuit claims hospital
shared confidential
information
ASTORIA — A former patient at Colum-
bia Memorial Hospital, Astoria, is suing for
alleged negligence and breach of confidence.
Lauren Born had a medical procedure
done at the hospital in August.
In a complaint filed earlier this month in
Circuit Court, Born alleges that the hospital
shared confidential information, including
an account of her behavior at the hospital,
to Born’s employer without her permission.
Her employer told Born her behavior
“misrepresented the company” and fired her,
according to the complaint.
Born alleges the hospital’s disclosure
violated the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act, which is intended to
protect medical privacy.
She is seeking $140,310 covering economic
and noneconomic damages.
Samuel Stanke, Born’s Milwaukie-based
attorney, could not be reached for comment.
A spokesperson for Columbia Memorial
Hospital declined to comment.
— EO Media Group
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