The San Luis Valley and Snippy the Horse
The account
A horse found with the flesh stripped from its head set off a wave of reports of lights and mutilations in the valley.
What investigators found
Veterinarians and the Condon Committee concluded that the animal died of natural causes and was then attacked by scavengers.
The story
In September 1967, a mare named Lady, who became known in the press as Snippy, was found dead on a ranch near Alamosa, Colorado. Her head and neck had been stripped of flesh, and the family spoke of strange lights in the sky days earlier. The case was treated as the first cattle mutilation linked to UFOs in the United States.
Veterinary exams and the Condon Committee's review pointed to natural death followed by the work of scavenging animals. Even so, the San Luis Valley piled up reports of lights over the following decades and gained a UFO watchtower in Hooper, which draws curious visitors to nights of sky-watching in the high desert.