Snippet #2598257

Anna found Sheriff Cobbs' investigative journal easily enough, as well as his most recent, normal journal, which just so happened to be next to the investigative one under the bed.

When the younger Dog pulled out the investigative journal, however, its pages fluttered slightly, causing a few loose, scraps of paper to fly out of the book. When Anna reached down to pick up those loose bits of paper, she would notice that they were, in fact, newspaper clippings.

There were a total of three clippings altogether. Each was a short article taken out of a larger paper, with rather eye-catching and distinctive headlines. They were, in order from the earliest dated clipping to the latest one...

Local Native Tribe Slaughtered; Men and Women Butchered, Children Missing.

This article was dated from 1864, and was nothing more than a small footnote. The author speculated that Native-on-Native violence was the cause of this incident, saying that another local Tribe might have slaughtered them. But beyond that, nothing of much substance was in the small article.

Mexican Settlement Hit By Bandits; Dozens Killed, Surviving Children Taken

This article, dated 1871, was more lengthy than its predecessor. It detailed the near total massacre of a Mexican village in the Deseret, that saw most of its adult inhabitants killed, and the surviving children taken away by the bandits. In the end though, the article did not contain much of substance beyond that.

Faith Settlement Wiped Out By Bandits; Entire Town Slaughtered, Children Taken To Parts Unknown

This article, dated around 1880, was a bit more...elaborate. It was longer than the previous two combined, detailing the raiding and destruction of an entire Faithian settlement out in the frontier. The entire town had been ransacked and put to the torch, with the Deseret Militia called in to pursue the bandits behind this wholesale slaughter. No bodies of the town's children had been found however, leading the author and local authorities to suspect that they had been taken by the bandits, for some nefarious purpose or another.

Altogether, the three articles had one common, shared link: missing children, taken after bandits...or whoever...had raided and slaughtered the local adult population.

Just like what was happening in Red Road, and the ranches hit over the past two months.