Skinwalker Stories Vol. 2, Chapter One

Story One:

As a retired Police Officer, I have my own collection of weird stories that I have until now refused to share with anyone. The following story may seem unbelievable, but I can assure you it really happened.

It’s important to set the scene for those unfamiliar with it. At this point in time I was still a young Police Officer working at a small town department in the middle of nowhere Texas. Those from there might know what I’m talking about. The sort of town with maybe two hundred people who kept to themselves and never involved law enforcement unless it was serious. The sort of town where the department acted more like sheriffs due to budget cuts at the time. People dealt with their own problems, if they even admitted to having problems. We officers often found ourselves with nothing to do most days, since there wasn’t much out where we were.

The day started normally until we got a call out to a homesteader. Homesteaders were often the last people to call in for any sort of help, certainly never from law enforcement. The one who gave us the call was Old Bill (not his real name), a particularly stubborn and paranoid old rancher whose best days were long behind him, if he had any. The sort of guy who’d come into town once a month to buy shotgun shells and stock up on enough supplies to last him another month. Me and my partner, Derrick (again, not his real name), were the ones who drew the short straw and got sent out to check up on the old bastard. We got there and knew something was wrong when his daughter came out screaming and covered in blood. Turns out he’d been killed the night before by some animal, what we initially believed to be a coyote. Strange thing was that he’d been killed, but not eaten, and all of his cattle were still on the ranch. They hadn’t been touched, though they were acting jumpy as if something was wrong. We naturally called it in and got that whole mess sorted.

It wasn’t until three days later that it happened again. Another homesteader and his family didn’t show up for the town market. Dean and his family. They never missed a market, they sold their produce there and that’s how they earned their way so we again got sent out to see where they were. Dean was dead. Found him on his porch, all torn up as if an animal had gotten to him. But his family, his wife and two girls, were missing. We found them the following day in the forest. They had been killed: but not by no animal. Whoever killed them had done things to them I won’t describe here, but needless to say none of us would forget what happened to them.

We initially thought it was a coyote, but after Dean and his family we had to confront the possibility of some serial killer with a fighting dog who was targeting homesteaders. This scared a lot of people. It was no longer considered safe to go outside, even during the daytime. Then a stranger began coming into town a few days after the family was murdered. Said he was sent by the FBI to investigate the killings, claimed it was a pattern he’d seen in other towns across multiple states. Thing was we never contacted the FBI. Not even a phone call or letter sent either way. But he had the badge and claimed he could help us with the investigation. Spoke with like a Dallas boy, was polite and everything. Had we known we’d have shot him there and then. Hindsights a real bitch.

It happened a week after the FBI agent came to town. A family of three who ran the local grocery store were found dead in their apartment above the store. They had been torn apart, the wife had been raped repeatedly before she had been killed. This time we had an eyewitness: a guy was walking past the night before and saw a coyote enter the store. But he was crazy: he told us he saw the coyote stand up on its hind legs and open the door with a human hand and then walking in like a human would. He ran home supposedly without being seen by this thing he saw. Well, we thought he was crazy, until we checked the security tapes from the store. Sure enough there was something that looked like a coyote walk through the store and towards the back, where it could walk upstairs where the family would have been. We were… disturbed after watching the tape. We didn’t know what we saw, we couldn’t be sure that we weren’t going crazy ourselves. But we all saw the tape, saw the exact same thing. The worst part is the tapes never recorded the thing, whatever it was, leaving. It never left, meaning it was there when we found the bodies.

The FBI agent was brought in and he himself was confused by the tape, but his reaction was different to ours. He wasn’t surprised by what the security tapes had recorded, more interested. What’s worse is that it seemed as if he hadn’t expected the cameras to pick up on whatever that thing was and record it to tape to begin with. He mentioned something about werewolves and something called a skinwalker, but would refuse to elaborate when asked.

That’s where the story ends. The final twist is the killings stopped almost immediately following the family. The FBI agent disappeared, along with all the evidence we collected. Turns out he stole it and later on we contacted the nearest FBI office and found out that he wasn’t a real agent at all. The guy had been a complete stranger. We never found out who he really was or why he’d pose as an FBI agent and steal the evidence. I figure he knew the guy who killed those people, or was responsible for it himself. As for the tapes, it could have been a costume. But the case never really added up. There was no dog or coyote, but those people were definitely killed by some type of animal. Yet the rapes were committed by a person. But why would the guy supposedly responsible pretend to be an FBI agent and steal all the evidence? To this day it doesn’t add up. I’ve had one more case like that, in New York about a decade later. But I’ll keep that one to myself for now.

Story Two:

I previously talked about a strange case I worked on as a younger officer working in a small town in Texas. At the end I mentioned how I would work on a similar case in New York a decade later. I would like to tell you that story now.

This was in 2001, shortly after the Trade Towers fell. It was a complete mess all around. All hands on deck, help where we could. The focus of the time, however, was obviously all on the two towers as it should have been. But that didn’t mean crime stopped and many of us Police Officers had to work on cases despite wanting to go help with that situation. I was no different, but I was one of many who had to work on cases rather than volunteer to help out. Now don’t get me wrong, what we do is important and I’d always put my job first. Just I was disappointed in not being able to help more.

I’m getting off track. This one case came across my desk and I immediately recognized the MO. A family of three above a grocery store had been killed by what looked like an animal, with the mother and daughter having been raped before their deaths. This time, however, there was no security tapes. They’d been stolen and the cameras destroyed, presumably by the suspect. And there were no witnesses this time either. But it seemed so similar to that one case I’d worked a decade earlier and asked my captain if I could request the notes from my old department. He was a bit confused before I explained the similarities in the two cases. He was obviously concerned about a serial killer operating in the city, especially if there were two similar cases in two different states as that meant the FBI would want to get involved (he was one of the old guard who had no love for the FBI), but agreed to let me phone up my old colleagues. Sure enough, the last murders from the older case were almost identical to these new murders. This led me down the rabbit hole looking for similar cases in the city from the last few weeks. I found two more: a librarian killed in her home and a single mother and her three sons killed in their home as well. It was enough for my captain to assign more manpower to my case.

We worked the case for just over a week with very little to show. I had a small team of detectives and some beat cops, not the best or the brightest but I hoped would still be enough to catch the bastard. I’d already told them about the guy who came to us claiming to be an FBI agent working the case and how he stole the evidence we had right before disappearing, but when it came to the tape I explained that the guy we thought responsible would likely be wearing some kind of animal costume. I didn’t want to try and explain the idea of an animal walking on its own two legs. In my old case, the person responsible seemed to disappear as soon as we got close to a real lead on his identity, meaning the fake FBI agent was either the suspect or at least directly related to him. I managed to find an old image of him we’d taken off one of the station cameras and had it spread around my team in the event the guy turned up here.

As it happens, he did in fact turn up, but as one of the victims. We got a call out to some cheap motel by the manager. The guy was laying on the bed, obviously mauled to death by some animal. I immediately demanded the security tapes, which were broken. The manager said the guy checked in as an FBI agent under the same name he told me and the others. Had the ID and everything. Well, we found the ID, as well as a standard issue handgun and a suitcase full of suits. No other paperwork. The ID and gun were both fake and obviously old enough where tracing them would be near impossible (we tried anyway, just in case). The manager then said something that caught my interest. He said the dead guy had a strange looking dog on him. Said it was a coyote he kept as a pet. The problem was there was no sign of there having been an animal in the room at any point. No dog food, no food or water bowls. Not even any hair. As far as we were concerned, the victim had been in his room alone.

Three hours after we found the fake FBI agent, we got another call from an apartment complex nearby of an animal trying to break into some of the apartments. We got there as quickly as we could, although the animal had already left the crime scene. Thankfully nobody had been killed this time, but we found claw marks, animal prints and even security footage of a coyote trying to get into some of the apartments. And the damn thing stood up on its hind legs and walked like a human did, even using a human had to try and open doors. Even though this is the second time I’d encountered footage of this happening, it still confused and shocked me to see it all again. And just like last time there was no real explanation for any of it.

We got a good, clear look at the thing, whatever it was. It looked like some twisted mix between a man and a coyote. The face was horrifying. It was both man and coyote at the same time, but also neither. It didn’t make any sense. None of us knew what to say or how best to respond.

The murders stopped after the incident with the apartments. And with the Twin Towers still fresh nobody outside our small team knew about the murders or even cared. The case ended up being closed without any real answers being found and the files buried so far deep I doubt anyone will find them. Looking back, knowing what I know now I think it may have been a skinwalker. At the time I didn’t even know what those were, but now it makes sense. All of it. I have been unable to find any other explanation in all the years I’ve lived since. I doubt I will. I retired last year without knowing for sure what that thing is or what happened. Is it still out there, killing and raping? I heard rumours of something similar in Japan in 2008 and again in Jerusalem in 2010. But since then nothing. I’m not sure I even want to know. Not any more.