*WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES OF DEER KILL*
On January 9th, 2015 @ about 5:20-5:30 p.m. at Canyon Lake, Texas, my family and I were backing out of our drive way, and the weather was bad that day, kind of hazy, misty rain, and it was about 37 degrees. I had my high beams on because it was beginning to get dark outside. As I backed out of the driveway my lights caught the attention of a very big creature about 9 foot tall grayish blonde in color with a 4 to 4 1/2 ft across from shoulder to shoulder, standing in front of an oak tree, it turn towards me from about 40 yards away, and it stood with its arms down at it’s side, I asked my son to look and I looked away briefly, when I looked back it was gone. The following Friday my wife and step daughter, while walking along the shoreline of the lake, discovered a bloody and strange deer kill site (fresh kill), the deer’s neck was broken and twisted all he way around, lungs, heart, and liver were gone and the deer’s intestinal content was thrown about, the back half of the deer was eaten,the front shoulder was eaten,but not the other shoulder.
I called the BFRO and left a message, J.D. from San Antonio came out and took pictures of the scene, I asked him if I should roll the deer over because of the shoulder bone sticking out. After rolling over I pulled the hide back and there was a sharp edged stone underneath the hide with flesh and blood on the stone–I kept this stone–there was also a 10 feet dragging kill-blood streak across the rocks, then it abruptly stops, and the deer’s carcass seems to be thrown about 15 feet from that spot with no blood stains in between the two spots. Upon further investigating I discovered a 5 foot long stick about 1 1/4 in diameter-rigid, with a sharp end on it, and the end of it had deer hair and flesh on it, like it was used to either stab the deer or just to hold it down, then it broke the deers neck, the kill was made from the waters edge side not the woods side, meaning the thing that killed the deer was hiding in the water…I also discovered tracks some were 19 inches long but were not castable, not enough definition, also found some tracks that were 14 inches long, and some 11 inches long along the shoreline down from the kill site, all of them were not castable it had also been raining that whole week off and on. Upon even more research we discovered At least 5 other deer carcasses in the general area. Called area fish and game warden out and she walked the area and observed all of the evidence on Sunday January 18th..
The site where this first deer kill was found:
The deer kill:
Finding a deer carcass in the general area would not be uncommon. Deer are often hit by cars and dumped in wooded areas. As well, bow hunting occurs in the area and a deer hit with a poorly placed arrow can travel some distance. Upon inspection, the deer carcass appeared to have no sign of being shot with an arrow or firearm. There was massive trauma, with a large amount of flesh removed from the carcass, but no obvious signs it had been removed with a knife. Nor was there evidence of “road rash” or signs of the deer hitting or sliding on asphalt on the remaining skin. As well, there appeared no easy way for a person to transport the deer carcass to the area. There is no vehicle access. It would need to have been carried approximately one quarter mile from the road. It was also not placed in the nearby brush, as would be expected if one was dropping off the carcass to allow nature to dispose of it. It was lying about halfway between the water’s edge and the brush line. The shallowness of the water near shore would preclude someone from using a boat to deposit the carcass. The lake bottom didn’t appear to have any disturbance, which even a shallow draft boat would have left.
View from the kill site showing drag marks, and an area with no sign on the ground, with the deer in the background:
It appeared the kill site, or where the carcass was first deposited, was directly at the water’s edge. This is where the largest amount of blood was seen. The best guess is the kill was likely done the night before my arrival. Our weather was dry, yet at approximately 5 pm when I inspected the site, there were still large drops of blood which had not fully dried in the direct sunlight. The carcass was not rotting, with no foul smell present, and buzzards (turkey vultures) had not yet discovered the kill. There was what appeared to be a drag line, where blood was smeared on the rocks, leading away from the water diagonally. It went for approximately fifteen feet. The carcass itself, at the time of inspection, was approximately fifteen feet further in a straight line. There was no blood or sign indicating the carcass had been dragged this final distance. It appeared to have been dragged then carried, without touching the ground, the last fifteen feet. This placed it within approximately ten feet of the brush line. Between the carcass and the water were located the intestines and stomach. The intestines did not appear to have been dragged, but carried from the carcass and deposited in place. Seemingly absent from this pile were the heart, liver, and lungs. Closer to the water was an approximately ten foot line, running parallel to the water, where there were numerous small piles of stomach contents. At one end was the stomach, which appeared to have been ripped open. A large amount of stomach contents were still with the stomach. There was no obvious sign the stomach had been dragged, but seemed to have been carried.
Close up photo of the deer:
The carcass itself was of a young spike buck. It appeared to have had the skin on the rear half ripped and torn. The hind quarters had been stripped of flesh, as well as the front right quarter. The bones did not appear broken on these legs, but the legs were only attached to the body by strips of soft tissue. The body cavity was totally empty, even the windpipe having been removed at the throat. One shoulder appeared relatively intact, except the skin was torn. This was the front quarter facing the ground. When the witness flipped the carcass over, a small flat rock was seen under the torn skin of this shoulder. It was a limestone rock which appeared to be a chip from a larger stone, leaving a semi-sharp edge.
Here are photos of the rock found under the hide, the witness kept this rock:
The deer’s head was facing its back as it lay on the ground. When the witness moved the head, it became obvious the neck was broken. While the area does have steep, small hills, there did not appear to be any place near the carcass where a deer could break its neck and end up at the shoreline.