The black heifer lay dead, its legs splayed in four directions,
belly flat on the ground.
Gilroy – The black heifer lay dead, its legs splayed in four directions, belly flat on the ground. Seven months old, it already weighed 500 pounds, and would bring $600 at market, if it hadn’t been shot and left dead, a strange victim of a strange crime.
The owner of the Palassou Ridge Ranch found the animal at 5pm Tuesday, Sept. 26, while driving through the 2,000-acre property, located near Gilroy Hot Springs Road. He’d left the ranch about 4pm Saturday, Sept. 23, after fixing some fences. The owner saw what looked like an exit wound on the heifer’s right front shoulder, the kind left by a large caliber rifle. But two days later, when Deputy Doug Vander Esch inspected the carcass, wildlife had begun to feed on it, and the exit wound, if it was one, was difficult to see.
Lt. Dale Unger said it might have been kids, or hunters who spotted the cow and decided to shoot it for fun.
The heifer lay about two miles north of the ranch’s driveway entrance, off Gilroy Hot Springs Road. In his report, Vander Esch noted, “I was unable to locate any further evidence at the scene for follow-up investigation. An unknown suspect is at large.”
