Twenty-two years. One evidence bag. Zero transfers. The Presidio County Sheriff’s Department has one word for it. That word is ‘ongoing.’ We have fourteen follow-up questions and they have not answered any of them.
I’m standing outside the Presidio County Sheriff’s Department on what I will describe as a very warm Tuesday, and the situation here is — okay, so the situation is more developed than we anticipated when we left Albuquerque, which is saying something because we left Albuquerque with essentially no plan. What we knew going in: a carcass collected in August 2003, logged as ‘unknown canid, possible livestock threat,’ has been sitting in evidence storage for twenty-two years. What we have learned since arriving: the department is not interested in discussing this. What we have also learned: the deputy who told me to leave did so twice, which I take as confirmation that the story is real and the story matters. My voice recorder is, I want to be transparent about this, doing something with the audio that my camera operator Tomas describes as ‘a grinding situation,’ so some of what follows is reconstructed from my notes. The notes are accurate. I write large.
The Presidio County Sheriff’s Department, where Item 7-C of the 2003 evidence log has been listed as ‘ongoing’ for 22 consecutive years. WTC has been asked to move our vehicle. We have moved it slightly.
Here is what we know, confirmed, as of this filing. On August 14th, 2003, a ranch hand on the outskirts of Marfa reported a dead animal on a county road. The responding deputy — name redacted in all documentation we obtained, a detail that I am adding to the Outstanding Answers Notebook right now, that is entry two hundred and fifteen — photographed the carcass, bagged it, and logged it as ‘unknown canid, possible livestock threat.’ The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department requested a transfer in 2004. Then again in 2007. The DCA filed for custodial review in 2011, 2014, and twice in 2019. Every request was denied. Every denial cited the same reason. ‘Ongoing.’ That is the complete text of every denial. Not ‘ongoing investigation.’ Not ‘ongoing legal proceedings.’ Just: ongoing. We asked what is ongoing. The department’s response — and I am quoting directly — was ‘the matter remains ongoing.’ I have ten things to tell you about this specimen and about the people who have been, in various ways, unable to get it out of that building.
Ten Things We Know About The Specimen In Evidence Locker C, Presidio County Sheriff’s Department
1
It Has Its Own Evidence Number, Which Has Been Renewed Five Times
Standard Presidio County evidence retention requires review every four years. The unknown canid specimen — Item 7-C, 2003 — has been reviewed and renewed five times, each time with the notation ‘retain, ongoing.’ Nobody we spoke to could identify who conducts the review. The deputy at the front desk suggested it might be automated. The department does not have an automated evidence management system. We confirmed this by asking the deputy at the front desk a second question.
2
The Original Responding Deputy Has Retired But Keeps Calling In About It
Deputy Hector Molina, now 67 and retired to a property outside Presidio, collected the specimen in 2003 and has, according to two current department staff members who asked to remain unnamed, ‘called in about the canid thing’ on multiple occasions since his retirement. We reached Deputy Molina by phone. He said, and I am quoting exactly: ‘I just want to know they’re looking after it.’ He did not explain why it required looking after. He did not seem to think this needed explaining.
3
The DCA’s 2011 Custodial Request Was Denied Because the Form Was Wrong, But the Correct Form Does Not Exist
The Department of Cryptid Affairs filed for custodial transfer of the specimen in 2011 using Form CR-14, which is the standard form for cryptid remains transfer. Presidio County denied the request on the grounds that the correct form was CR-14(b). The DCA contacted the department to request Form CR-14(b). The department confirmed it does not have Form CR-14(b) and suggested the DCA contact the state office. The state office has no record of Form CR-14(b). The denial stands. The specimen remains. DCA spokesperson Arthur Pritchard described the situation as ‘a productive avenue for future procedural alignment’ and we did not follow up because we needed to sit down for a minute.
4
Dr. Amelia Cross Has Reviewed the 2003 Photographs and Has Opinions
WTC Network Cryptid Biologist Dr. Amelia Cross examined the original evidence photographs — obtained via a records request that took fourteen months — and produced a twelve-page preliminary assessment. Her conclusion, reached on page eleven after considerable anatomical detail: ‘The specimen presents morphological characteristics inconsistent with any documented canid species, including an elongated thoracic cavity, apparent dermal sclerosis inconsistent with standard decomposition timeline, and what appears in photograph four to be a third orbital socket.’ She noted on page twelve that she would need the actual specimen to confirm. She has not been given the actual specimen. The matter is ongoing.
5
There Is a Second Evidence Bag That Nobody Has Officially Acknowledged
In the 2007 Texas Parks and Wildlife transfer request — document forty-seven in the records packet, which I found because I was looking for a different document and then stopped looking for the different document — there is a reference to ‘associated materials, see Item 7-C(ii).’ Item 7-C(ii) does not appear anywhere else in the evidence log. We asked about Item 7-C(ii). The desk deputy said she was not familiar with that item number. We asked if she could check. She said she would look into it. We have been waiting outside for three hours. Tomas has eaten all the gas station provisions. I have noted this in the Outstanding Answers Notebook. It is entry two hundred and sixteen.
6
The Rancher Who Reported It Has Had No Livestock Deaths Since
This is the one that stops you. The ranch hand who reported the carcass in 2003 worked for the Delgado family operation outside Marfa, which had been experiencing unexplained livestock deaths for the prior eighteen months — the reason the deputy was flagging anything unusual on that road to begin with. The livestock deaths stopped the same week the specimen was collected. We spoke to Elena Delgado, whose family still runs the ranch. ‘We don’t talk about it much,’ she said, in a tone that suggested she thought about it often. ‘Whatever it was, it was the last one.’ She paused. ‘I’d leave it where it is, honestly.’ She did not explain why. We did not push. There are moments in this job where you write it down and you move on.
7
A Man From the Gallup Incident Appears in a 2019 Records Request Response
I want to be careful here because I am aware this could be coincidence and I am aware that I am not always the most objective judge of what is coincidence. But in the documents released in response to the 2019 DCA custodial review, there is a name in the cc field of an internal departmental email that I have seen before. On a document from a 2019 incident near Gallup, New Mexico, concerning a federal presence that was never officially documented. Same name. Different state. Different year. Same spelling. I have photographed the document. I have it in the truck. I have shown it to Hal. Hal has asked me to let it go. I have written it in the notebook. It is entry two hundred and seventeen. I am not letting it go.
8
Professor Leonard Finch Says This Is Extremely Normal, Historically Speaking
WTC Paranormal Historian Professor Leonard Finch noted in a prepared statement that ‘the indefinite municipal retention of cryptid biological material is well-documented as far back as 1437, when the township of Dinkelsbühl held a claimed dragon jawbone in administrative custody for sixty-three years under the justification that the matter was, and I quote the original Low German, pending.’ He added that in most historical cases, the retaining authority was eventually found to have no record of why the retention began. ‘The specimen,’ Professor Finch concluded, ‘usually outlasts the paperwork. The paperwork usually outlasts the explanation.’ He seemed pleased about this. We did not share his mood.
9
The Evidence Locker It’s Stored In Was Upgraded in 2018, Specifically
In fiscal year 2018, Presidio County Sheriff’s Department received a county capital improvement allocation for evidence storage upgrades. According to budget documents — public record, took forty minutes to find — the upgrade included new shelving, a climate control system, and a ‘biologically sensitive materials enclosure’ in Evidence Room C. The biologically sensitive materials enclosure is, per the department’s own submitted justification, designed for ‘temperature-sensitive and organically active specimens requiring long-term preservation.’ The department has one item in biological evidence. It has been there since 2003. They built it a better room. They did not tell anyone they did this. Malcolm Shaw would have called this a routine facility upgrade. Malcolm Shaw was wrong about the tunnel goblins too.
10
Nobody Is Asking for Its Return, and Nobody Is Explaining Why Not
This is the one I keep coming back to. The DCA stopped filing transfer requests after 2019. Texas Parks and Wildlife has not followed up since 2007. The International Yowie Council, which files amicus statements on most cryptid custody matters as a matter of policy, has no record of this case at all. I asked Arthur Pritchard why the DCA stopped pursuing the specimen. He said the matter had been ‘deprioritised pending internal review.’ I asked when the internal review began. He said 2019. I asked when it would conclude. He said the timeline was not available. I am standing in a parking lot in Presidio County, Texas, and whatever is in that building has been here longer than some of the deputies who work here, and the only person who seems to feel anything specific about it is a retired deputy who calls in to check that someone is looking after it. I don’t know what that means. I know it means something. Item 7-C has been ongoing for twenty-two years. We will keep you updated.
Whatever it was, it was the last one. I’d leave it where it is, honestly.
— Elena Delgado, Delgado Ranch, Marfa TX — speaking about the 2003 specimen recovery and subsequent end of livestock incidents
Official Response: The Matter Remains Ongoing
The Presidio County Sheriff’s Department issued a formal statement in response to our records request, our phone inquiry, our in-person visit, and what the desk deputy described as our ‘second in-person visit which we consider the same visit.’ The statement reads, in full: ‘The Presidio County Sheriff’s Department does not comment on active evidence matters. The matter referenced in your inquiry remains ongoing. Thank you for your interest in Presidio County.’ We thanked them for their interest in being thanked. We are still in the parking lot. Tomas has found more provisions. The voice recorder is still doing the thing. We are noting all of this.
The specimen presents morphological characteristics inconsistent with any documented canid species, including what appears in photograph four to be a third orbital socket.
— Dr. Amelia Cross, WTC Network Cryptid Biologist — preliminary assessment, 2003 evidence photographs, Presidio County
⚠️
FIELD ALERT
WTC has submitted a further records request for Item 7-C(ii). The department has 30 business days to respond. We have also, separately, asked Deputy Molina if he would be willing to meet. He said he would think about it. He sounded like a man who has been thinking about it for twenty-two years.
FAST FACTS
• Item 7-C has been in Presidio County evidence storage for 22 years — longer than four of the current department’s deputies have been employed
• The DCA has filed five separate custodial transfer requests. All five were denied. The combined word count of all five denial letters is eleven words.
• A climate-controlled biologically sensitive materials enclosure was built in Evidence Room C in 2018. Item 7-C is the only biological specimen in departmental custody. Nobody mentioned this until we found the budget documents.
• The Outstanding Answers Notebook currently stands at 217 entries. Three have been resolved. This case has contributed four new entries in a single afternoon.
Rico Valez, WTC What The Cryptid News Network, Presidio County Sheriff’s Department parking lot, Presidio County, Texas. We’ll keep you updated. I will not have signal for several hours because we are about to drive back through the part of the county where there is famously no signal, and Tomas would like to stop for food, and I want to call Claudia because Dispatch has a vet appointment today and I need to know he ate this morning. The notebook is open. The matter is ongoing.
ricovalez@whatthecryptid.com Rico Valez · Frontline Field Correspondent — WTC
