Mesa County Sheriff’s Office investigates after women’s shoes found in desert | Western Colorado

On May 9, YouTube channel CountertopEpoxy, which has 143,000 subscribers, posted a video of Levi Comstock of Western Colorado coming across a strange scene in the desert north of Grand Junction: several women’s shoes lying on the bank of a pond, with no explanation or other clues.

The video attracted national attention – it had been viewed 72,000 times on YouTube as of Tuesday – and sparked fears that either a body had been dumped in the Grand Valley or that it was the work of a serial killer.

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office has partnered with the Bureau of Land Management and the Mesa County Road and Bridge Department to investigate the scene. On Tuesday, MCSO invited area media representatives to visit the area and learn about the ongoing investigative efforts, which are focused on two neighboring ponds.

Art Smith, MCSO’s operations division chief, said “public concern” prompted the investigation, which has so far turned up nearly a dozen shoes, a bra, several shirts, a fake nail, a headband and a license plate. Smith noted, however, that at this point there is no reason to believe the license plate is connected to the other items, as it was simply in a similar location.

Additionally, a bone was recovered and taken to the Mesa County Coroner’s Office for identification, but since it was ultimately not human, there remain no signs of human remains in the area.

“So far, it’s still suspicious that a number of items of clothing were found on the shore of the pond,” Smith said. “One of the things we have is we brought in the person who made those YouTube videos, the original reporter, and we met with him and interviewed him. He showed us all the locations where he saw or found these items or items of clothing.”

To date, the MCSO has not found any evidence of ground disturbance that would indicate a possible spill.

One detail that the MCSO finds fascinating about the seized shoes is the inconsistency of their styles, sizes and, most importantly, wear and tear.

“We go from some that are pretty damaged to some that look almost undamaged,” Smith said. “One of the things we’re trying to do as part of this investigation is to determine the age of all the shoes we’ve found with some accuracy. We’re still working on that.”

HOW THE EXAMINATION IS CONDUCTED

The MCSO received written permission from the BLM to drain the lower pond to excavate the area, but so far nothing unusual has been discovered. The upper pond was already dry enough to search. After raking the dry lake with a harrow, the MCSO deployed a cadaver dog, but found nothing of interest.

The MCSO then worked with the Highway and Bridge Authority to mobilize equipment and begin excavation.

Smith pointed out that the county employee who operates the Link Belt excavator that is digging the ponds is the same man who found Jennifer Blagg’s body at the Mesa County landfill more than 20 years ago. That discovery led to the conviction of Blagg’s husband, Michael Blagg, of murder.

“I hope we don’t find anything here – that’s my hope – but it’s also nice that the gentleman who is helping us has experience in finding things when there is something to find,” Smith said.

Smith hopes the office’s work will be completed by August 5 with some conclusive and satisfactory results, but he cannot guarantee that timeline. The total cost of this investigation will also be determined around that time.

“We are at the mercy of Mother Nature. We are dependent on how quickly everything dries and whether or not the heavy equipment can sit on the mud and sink,” Smith said.

The MCSO had originally planned to use underground radar to search the area for remains. However, it was determined that the results of such an initiative would almost certainly be unreliable due to the soil conditions, so it was decided that excavation would be the best route.

“We were considering using ground-penetrating radar and were actually planning to use it. We had already brought a ground-penetrating radar resource in-house. We don’t own it, but our federal partners have access to that equipment,” Smith said.

“We had planned to send a BLM resource to search the entire lower pond with ground-penetrating radar, but the more we talked to experts – people with Ph.D.s – about how ground-penetrating radar works and doesn’t work, the more they led us to believe that it is essentially ineffective at the current soil moisture levels.”

A POSSIBLE EXPLANATION?

In the event that no bodies or evidence of violence or crime are found, Smith mentioned one possibility that could explain why shoes and clothing have been found near these ponds: an internet-fueled fetish involving women losing their high heels in the mud.

Smith said that under the circumstances, this was as plausible an explanation as any.

“Why would someone take shoes and clothes and dump them in front of this pond? I don’t know the answer to that… Interestingly, none of us in the sheriff’s office were aware that there is an internet fetish, a whole class of internet fetishism, namely women in high heels in the mud,” he said.

“I’ve never heard of that. We have people who work for us whose bread and butter is sex crimes and violent crimes against people, and none of them have ever heard of it before. Is that why these shoes are out there? I can’t answer that, but it’s at least a plausible explanation for why these shoes might be out there.”