Mystery at the Windmill Ranch near Snyder Texas

      If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned then whatever you do, do NOT no matter what, never-ever scorn mother nature... NEVER-EVER!

    A couple sentences from now, I'm going to show you a picture that as far as I'm concerned is cold blooded murder committed by none other Mother Nature. Long ago, Anita Bryant warned us all; "Don't Fool with Mother Nature." Now, I'm convinced she was right. Teresa, on the other hand, disagrees with me but she doesn't have any conclusive evidence to support her theory. I don't either. So, we're asking for your help to solve this Windmill Ranch Mystery.

     The story begins on a blustery, spring morning as we were entering the ranch for daily duties. I'm watching the road in front of me for deer, but mostly new calves that have learned to get off the road. Teresa's watching out her window too for calves, but mostly for deer and other wildlife.

     Teresa: "Did you see that!? Something's in that tree!"

     Me: "What? I didn't see anything. Where?"

     Teresa: "Back there.. in the trees. It looked like a deer or something hanging in the trees."

     Me: "Didn't see it."

     Teresa: "It's probably just a shadow."

     If you now nothing else about T, know this... Once she gets curious about something she's going to get an answer whether it takes a few minutes or a few hours. That quality proved true almost immediately after we parked at the ranch pavilion.

     Teresa: "I'm going back to see what's in that tree. Gracie, stay!"

     So, she fired up Big Red, our old red pickup, and zoomed off to investigate. Meantime, I stayed put. It wasn't 10-minutes later that she came back with a couple fuzzy photos.

Windmill Ranch

     Teresa: "I took this from the truck. I was wearing my flip flops and didn't want to                     get out. It's not a  deer. What is it?"

     Me: "I dunno. We'll take a closer look on the way out."

     

    

Windmill Ranch

So going on this pictur,e what do you think it is and how do you think it got there? It could be a deer, maybe a shadow or maybe something else. We wouldn't know until a few more hours later when we were leaving the property.

     We drove out like we always do. We can't go too fast because either the road is too bumpy or the calves won't get out of the way, or sometimes, like this day, we have our heads on a swivel looking for a mystery hanging in the trees. By trees, I'm mean the ubiquitous, west Texas mesquites. This time of year, some are still brown and gray but others are beginning to sprout their green buds. The wet trunks on this day made the whole grove look like shadows rising from the ground up.

     Then! There it was. Something was definitely hanging in the trees. We walked to it, about 100-yards off the road. Sure enough, it was a coyote wedged between a 'V' shaped mesquite tree. It's back legs dangling too far away from any lumber to gain traction. It was dead. But, how?

Windmill Ranch/Snyder, Texas

     This is where T & I have differing conclusions. T's certain my theory doesn't hold water so she believes the animal was shot and purposefully hung in the tree to ward off other coyotes as per Ranch Lore. I disagree.

     I believe the coyote was chasing prey, jumped up into the tree, slipped, fell into the 'V', snapped its back and died in the wedge. I base my conclusion on the circumstantial evidence that there was no blood and no obvious bullet hole

    We, The Festus & Fife Detective Agency, are stumped on this murder in Mother Nature. Any and all thoughts are welcome. For now, we'll put this in our Cold Case file.

Bill Robertson, (4/13/21)