Bucky flicks through a few tabs in his browser—a few pictures of a crime scene in the forest, cordoned off, the victim covered in most of them, aside from one human hand protruding from under a black tarp. The tab he finally stops on is a local newspaper article. The headline reads: Lost Hiker's Body Recovered.
The pictures on this one are a little more lurid, though still discreet enough to offer some privacy to the victim.
"One, because it was before the timeline most people have been looking in. But mostly, it seems like the body was exposed to the elements for at least a week. They thought this tourist had gotten lost on a mountain trail. Found the body looking busted at the bottom of a ravine. The scavengers had already gotten to it by that time, so everyone assumed it was the fall and the animals that did the damage. But..."
He pulls up a map then, the confirmed kills flagged in yellow, the hiker's death in red. All together, they make a tight cluster.
"It's in our unidentified monster's hunting range, which on it's own could be a coincidence on it's own, but..."
A new tab. He's accessed the autopsy report for the hiker, side by side with a confirmed victim.
"The trauma pattern is more or less the same. Attacked from above and behind. Missing organs. I guess we can't rule out this was a mountain lion or something, the body went over a cliff and vultures got the rest. But they're similar enough not to ignore it. Plus, if it means this thing has been in the area, say, sixteen days longer than we thought, that changes our search parameters."
don't i feel that. my allergies have been insane this year
The pictures on this one are a little more lurid, though still discreet enough to offer some privacy to the victim.
"One, because it was before the timeline most people have been looking in. But mostly, it seems like the body was exposed to the elements for at least a week. They thought this tourist had gotten lost on a mountain trail. Found the body looking busted at the bottom of a ravine. The scavengers had already gotten to it by that time, so everyone assumed it was the fall and the animals that did the damage. But..."
He pulls up a map then, the confirmed kills flagged in yellow, the hiker's death in red. All together, they make a tight cluster.
"It's in our unidentified monster's hunting range, which on it's own could be a coincidence on it's own, but..."
A new tab. He's accessed the autopsy report for the hiker, side by side with a confirmed victim.
"The trauma pattern is more or less the same. Attacked from above and behind. Missing organs. I guess we can't rule out this was a mountain lion or something, the body went over a cliff and vultures got the rest. But they're similar enough not to ignore it. Plus, if it means this thing has been in the area, say, sixteen days longer than we thought, that changes our search parameters."