Mutologist Chris O'Brien Meets A Sudden End

On Sunday morning, November 24, 2024, Christopher O'Brien, well-known author of several works on his investigations of unexplained phenomena (including UFOs, UAPs, and cattle mutilations) was experiencing what he thought was a "panic attack." He decided to drive himself to a near-by hospital in Sedona, Arizona, where he was living at the time. He died on route, although official details were initially incomplete.

*BREAKING*

This following statement is just in from Ron James, the producer whose house Chris was staying at in Sedona.  James was away when the events unfolded.

Ron James writes that Chris was...

"helping me with the sequel to my film Accidental Truth when he experienced catastrophic breathing difficulties and tried to drive himself to the emergency room. He probably lost consciousness, due to not being able to breathe, and subsequently crashed his car into a stone sign and was fatally wounded.

"I've known Chris for over 25 years and he has helped me on five of my documentary films. I am working on more information and a more formal announcement. I was in San Francisco at the SOL conference when this happened.

"On the way back to Sedona,  I asked my departed friend to give me a sign. Before going home, I stopped by the scene of the accident. This is what I found.  Thank you my friend for years of loyalty and friendship."

Photos by Ron James/Facebook/Nov 25/2025

Chris' Life

David Perkins, Tom Adams, and Gary Massey would join Chris O'Brien in an unstructured early group of researchers involved in what David called "the fledgling study dubbed ~ tongue-in-cheek - Mutology."

Here are the beginnings of how Chris got deeply enmeshed in Mutology. One small point. Chris outlasted the members of the group who died before him (see the list of obits at the end here). Until this weekend, Chris was the lone and last "survivor."

Chris was born on March 24, 1957, in Medina, Washington State. He went to Kentridge High (Class of 1975), and attended Lehman College of the City University of New York. He studied media, geology, anthropology, and music from 1975-1978 and in 1980. He was an investigative journalist, author, tv/radio spokesperson, sonic sculpturist, and an aspiring techno shaman.

Chris O'Brien in 2000.

Christopher O'Brien, Unsolved Mysteries, Season 17 (October 2, 2024), 

Volume 5, Overall Episode 610, "Mysterious Mutilations."

Most recently, when not traveling, visiting friends, and staying with them, Chris lived alone in Chemung, New York.

Since 1992, Christopher O'Brien investigated over one thousand unexplained events reported in the San Luis Valley--located in South-central Colorado/North Central New Mexico (the location of the initial "Snippy the Horse" incident). Working with law enforcement officials, ex-military, ranchers and an extensive network of skywatchers, from 1992 to 2002, Chris documented one of the most intense waves of unexplained activity ever reported from a single geographic region of North America. His ten-year investigation resulted in the three books of his "mysterious valley" trilogy, The Mysterious Valley, Enter the Valley, and Secrets of the Mysterious Valley. 

His meticulous field investigation of UFO reports, unexplained livestock deaths, Native American legends, cryptozoology, secret military activity and the associated folklore, found in the world's largest alpine valley, has produced one of the largest databases of unusual occurrences gathered from a single geographic region. 

Chris recently was working with a team of specialists installing a high-tech video surveillance and hard-data monitoring system in and around the San Luis Valley. His 2009 book Stalking the Tricksters distilled his years of field investigation and research into an unified paranormal theory. 

His last major book Stalking the Herd (600 pages) has been called "The Bible of cattle mutilations books."  

O'Brien, an entertaining, thought-provoking speaker was a frequent guest on Coast-to-Coast AM and hundreds of other radio shows. He has also been seen on several broadcast TV programs such as: Ancient Aliens, Weird or What, Conspiracy Theory, and UFO Hunters. 

Starting in the early 1990s, Chris developed, supplied footage, field-produced and appeared in four segments of the Paramount television program Sightings and was featured on Inside Edition, Extra, Showtime's Sci-Friday Chronicles, the TBS documentary UFO: The Search, the BBC2 program Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends, Nippon TV's Special Research 2000, the Discovery Channel's two-hour documentary, Billion $ Secret (with Jane's Defence Weekly's Nick Cook,) the TV series UFO Files, Exploring the Unknown, The Unexplained, Secrets of:, Profiles in Ufology, Unexplained Mysteries, and in the English documentary film Mutilation Files. At home in front or behind the camera, O'Brien has field-produced and directed television segments for the nationally syndicated paranormal news-magazine Strange Universe. 

Chris was a consulting producer and writer/researcher for Stage 3 [Television] Productions where he also wrote and produced History, Mystery and Greed: the Story of Snippy the Horse, and co-produced the documentaries Dead Whisper and Disclosure Dialogues which won two EBE Film Festival Awards. Inspired by his field-research, Chris co-wrote an action/adventure film screenplay, Deadly Waters, that was judged Honorable Mention in the 1998 Southwest Screenwriter's Guild Contest.

Since 1993, he wrote articles that have appeared in Open Minds, Fate, UFO Universe, Leading Edge, CyberWest, Western Spirit, World Exploror's Club Magazine, Crestone Eagle, Phenomena, Zeitgeist, and UFO Encounters.

Chris' investigation and research were featured in the Associated Press, Denver Post, Pueblo Chieftain, the New Mexican, the Rocky Mountain News, the Albuquerque Journal, the Deseret News, The Red Rock News, UFO Magazine, Phenomenon, (France) OVNI (Spain), Borderline (Japan). 

An entertaining and thought-provoking speaker for several decades, he was a perennial guest lecturer at Adam's State College and he captivated conference and seminar audiences with his unique insight into some of our culture's last remaining mysteries. He also hosted his own regional Colorado/New Mexico radio show, Mysterious Valley Report (1996-1999), and published the bi-monthly Mysterious Valley Report (1993-2000).

Chris' involvement in Strange Universe and his co-produced film w/ Ron James, It Could Happen Tomorrow, won two 2012 EBEs for Best Feature and the Peoples Choice Award. His latest James' co-production, Accidental Truth (2023) won seven film festival awards. He also co-produced/creative consulted for James Fox's recent award winning films The Phenomenon (2021) and Moment of Contact (2023).  Recent work has been for the program, Beyond Skinwalker Ranch. Christopher O'Brien was the major interviewee on Unsolved Mysteries, Season 17 (October 2, 2024), in the episode "Mysterious Mutilations."

Chris also worked under the name KK Barnes with Michael Esposito.

Throughout the 2000s, Christopher O'Brien was a frequent speaker at Para-conferences in the USA, as well as doing podcasts. 

His input and insights will be missed.

Christopher O'Brien and David Weatherly at Paradigm, October 26, 2013.

Christopher O'Brien was the author of

The Mysterious Valley (1996)

Enter the Valley: UFOs, Religious Miracles, Cattle Mutilations, and Other Unexplained Phenomena in the San Luis Valley (1999)

Secrets of the Mysterious Valley (2007)

Stalking the Tricksters: Shapeshifters, Skinwalkers, Dark Adepts and 2012 (2009)

Stalking the Herd: Unraveling the Cattle Mutilation Mystery (2014)

 

Christopher O'Brien and Loren Coleman, June 27, 2018. Portland, Maine, International Cryptozoology Museum.

I'm in shock. Chris is gone.

See also the detailed information in:

David Perkins (October 18, 1945 ~ August 20, 2023).

Tom Adams (May 6, 1945 ~ August 20, 2014)

Gary Massey (March 5, 1948 ~ September 7, 2010)

"Itʼs unclear whether at the time of his death, Tom even knew of Gary Masseyʼs apparent suicide in 2010." ~ David Perkins.

"Massey set his house on fire, shot his dog, and then shot himself dead." ~ Christopher O'Brien

Making Aurora Great Again

         "The fire rises!" ~ Bane, The Dark Knight Rises, 2012

Aurora, Colorado has a long recent history with twilight language. Why should we expect 2024 to be any different?

Remember July 20, 2012? I forecast something was going to happen on that date in conjunction with the release of The Dark Knight Rises. It did.

A mass shooting occurred on July 20, 2012, at a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, leaving 12 dead and 58 injured (some gravely), 15 minutes after the film began. The active shooting took place in Theater No. 9 at the Century 16 Movie Theaters, located at 14300 East Alameda Avenue in Aurora, Colorado. (News reports have said as high as 15 are dead, but as of 8:00 AM Eastern, CNN is reporting 12 have been killed. Double-counting caused the 15 count.)

In my first blog posting about the shooting, I wrote:

The name Aurora means "dawn." The Roman goddess of the dawn was named Aurora, and her siblings are Sol (Sun) and Luna (Moon). These names in Latin and Greek are  Aurora/Eos, Sol/Helios, Luna/Selene.

Anne Hathaway/Catwoman's public persona character in The Dark Knight Rises is named Selene Kyle (Selene = Moon, Kyle = Strait of Water/River).

Aurora is a suburb less than 10 miles east of downtown Denver. Aurora originated in the 1880s as the town of Fletcher, taking its name from Denver businessman Donald Fletcher, who saw it as a real estate opportunity. He and his partners staked out four square miles east of Denver, but the town - and Colorado - struggled mightily after the Silver Crash of 1893. At that point Fletcher skipped town, leaving the community with a huge water debt. Inhabitants decided to rename the town Aurora in 1907, after one of the subdivisions composing the town.

Colorado is of Spanish origin, meaning "colored red" and "ruddy."

The memories of Columbine (20 miles away from Aurora) are being recalled by the Colorado and other media.

The Aurora name is familiar to investigators of the unexplained due to the the Aurora, Texas, Airship incident that reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897, in Aurora, Texas, a small town in the northwest corner of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) allegedly resulted in a fatality from the crash. The alleged alien body is reportedly buried in an unmarked grave at the local Aurora cemetery.

(Various "Aurora," "Copycat Jokers," and "Red Dawn" postings followed discussing all the issues and events in the wake of the shootings and more. Here, here, here, and others throughout the blog.

In 2019, Aurora, Illinois was touched.

On the evening of October 11, 2024, former President Donald Trump brought Aurora, Colorado, back into the news in the same time period as the aurora borealis (the northern lights) display was visible in the northern and southern hemispheres. (Credit for noting this news to Enki King.)

 

"Anyone who has studied twilight language probably got chills upon hearing of Trump's Operation Aurora. The announcement may signal an upcoming Red Dawn event, and I would not be surprised to see more attempts at political assassinations." ~ Enki A. King, X, October 15, 2024,

The Habsburg Jaw in Butler County

                                                          

Thomas Matthew Crooks

July 13, 2024: The Assassination Attempt of former President Donald Trump in Butler County, PA.

MTC

Habsburg chin, Habsburg's chin, Habsburg jaw or Habsburg's jaw.

The House of Habsburg.

The correlation between the Hapsburg Jaw and mental illness is direct. This partial paper is indicative.

Carlos II of Spain, ‘The Bewitched’: cursed by aspartylglucosaminuria?

Andrew Martin,1 Robert Heard,2,3 and Victor S C Fung1

Carlos II of Spain (1661–1700), last of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, was known as El Hechizado (The Bewitched) because of his poor health and feeble nature. He suffered from a range of disorders including developmental delay, intellectual disability, dysarthria, skeletal deformity, recurrent infections, epilepsy and infertility. The Spanish branch of the Habsburg royal family was characterised by marked inbreeding, and the male line died out with Carlos II. Various diagnoses have been proffered to explain Carlos II’s infirmity, though none fully explain the breadth of his ailments. As illustrated here, it may be that aspartylglucosaminuria, an autosomal recessively inherited lysosomal storage disorder, can account for the characteristic facial appearance of the Habsburgs, and for the wide variety of other features exhibited by Carlos II.

Go to:

Aspartylglucosaminuria

Aspartylglucosaminuria is an autosomal recessively inherited lysosomal disorder of in which glycoasparagines, mostly aspartylglucosamine, are deposited and build up in several different tissues, including the nervous system. Most cases have been described in Finland, where a high carrier rate is prevalent, although mutations are found worldwide.1 2 Being autosomal recessively inherited, the prevalence is increased in populations with a high degree of consanguinity.

Characteristic clinical features typically include normal birth and early infancy followed, at the age of 2–3, by delayed speech and motor development with intellectual disability.3 A weak suck in infancy has also been described.4 A distinctive facial appearance is present, consisting of widely spaced eyes (hypertelorism), puffy eyelids, small ears, full lips, a square and prominent jaw, a cupid bow shape of the upper lip and a short, broad nose. Patients have frequently been described as appearing prematurely aged.5 In addition, there is frequently relative macrocephaly earlier in development, which may evolve into relative microcephaly, presumably due to retardation of skull growth as the disease progresses6

Not infrequently, skin lesions are present. A wide variety of such lesions have been described, including erythema, herpetic-appearing lesions, facial angiofibromas, seborrhoea, gingival overgrowth, buccal oedema and occasionally tumours.7 8 Fistulas have also been described.9 Bony abnormalities are often seen, including thick and misshapen ribs, scoliosis and thickened calvaria.3 Other suggestive features include recurrent pulmonary infections, diarrhoea, hypermobility of connective tissues, hernias, movement disorders and epilepsy.2Intellectual disability is typically mild early on, though verbal dysfunction is most prominent, with later progression to severe levels by late adulthood.4 A range of psychiatric symptoms may be present.

The course is progressive. Most patients die in the fifth decade. Somewhat interestingly, as was the case in Carlos II, patients generally become very apathetic/abulic before death.2

Go to:

Carlos II, The Bewitched

Carlos II was a sick and frail monarch, and the tragic end product of years of disastrous inbreeding. Ascending the throne at the age 4, he ruled over the Spanish Empire ineffectually for 35 years. His death in 1700 without an heir threw Europe into the convulsive and disastrous War of the Spanish Succession. Its end result was to weaken both Spain and France, allowing the rise of the English.10

Carlos II exhibited many features described in aspartylglucosaminuria. Contemporary sources record that he was ‘big-headed’ and a ‘weak breast-fed baby’. The bones of his cranium had not fused at the age of three, and he was unable to walk until well after the age of 6.11 Carlos II was unable to speak until the age of four, and thereafter acquired little language.11 12 He also had prominent dysarthria, with his tongue being described as ‘trabado [locked], with such a fumbling in his speech’.11 In addition, he was described as showing little interest in his surroundings. He had severe intellectual disability, and was most commonly described as ‘mentally retarded’.13He had prominent psychiatric disturbance, and was melancholic, and excessively superstitious.13

He also suffered from chronic and episodic diarrhoea. Late in life, he developed seizures.12 He had frequent pulmonary infections from a young age, and at autopsy his lungs were said to be ‘corroded’.13 He was also described as being generally ‘swollen’, suggestive of oedema.12 Somewhat interesting, too, is the description of cutaneous lesions, with mentions of a ‘herpetic rash on both cheeks’, and a discharging wound that ‘oozes underneath the right ear’, which may represent an abscess or fistula.11 Of later monumental historical significance is his well-known sterility.11The autopsy is also reported to have demonstrated a heart the size of a peppercorn, intestines rotten and gangrenous, a single testicle ‘black as coal’ and ‘a head full of water’.12

Most characteristic, however, is the distinctive facial appearance, well documented in multiple portraits. There is the strong, square jaw (the famous ‘Habsburg jaw’), a large tongue, plump, round lips, a cupid bow upper lip, a flat, broad nose and large forehead, all reminiscent of the typical findings of aspartylglucosaminuria (figures 1 and 2). He is also frequently described to have severe difficulty eating, with near continuous drooling.

Left: Carlos II of Spain, Juan Carreño de Miranda (Wikipedia, public domain). Middle: Carlos II of Spain, Anonymous (Wikipedia, public domain). 

Skinwalker Ranch Deaths and the Hitchhiker Effect

The Skinwalker Ranch is a property of approximately 512 acres (207 ha), located southeast of Ballard, Utah, that is reputed to be the site of strange (Fortean) and UFO/UAP-related activities. Its name is taken from the lore and sightings of skinwalkers of Ute and Diné legend.

Various parts of documentaries and programs have chronicled the mysteries of the site. As of 2020, a television series, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, on History channel, has featured "a team of scientists and experts" that uses science and technology such as lasers, ground-penetrating radar, and drone thermography, as well as lots of rockets. It have shown the cast members searching the property, and attempting to explain claims of UFO/UAP sightings, animal deaths, and unusual events. By April 2024, five seasons of multiple episodes have been filmed and planned for broadcast.

Chief Deputy Brian Fletcher

In March 2024, breaking news was released by the Uintah County Sheriff’s Office. They reported the recovery of a deceased individual around February 29, 2024, near the Skinwalker Ranch.

Chief Deputy Brian Fletcher confirmed the finding, stating, “Our agency did locate a deceased individual south of Fort Duchesne; however, the circumstances are not suspicious, and no further information will be released out of respect for the family,” in an email to Expanding Frontiers Research on March 4, 2024.

Expanding Frontiers Research received information indicating that the body may have been found in the vicinity of 4500 East and 2800 South after an abandoned motorcycle was reported to the sheriff’s office several months earlier. The motorcycle’s discovery was reported on November 24, 2023.

According to an inside informant familiar with the incident, the deceased individual might have been in the area due to an interest in the purported paranormal phenomena linked to Skinwalker Ranch. When asked about this possibility, Chief Deputy Fletcher declined to provide further details.

Members of the investigative teams of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch have told of the "Hitchhiker Effect" involving how the ranch impacts visitors and scientists who visit and work there. Dizzy spells, headaches, and hospital visits have resulted from the apparent electromagnetic side effects from the ranch.

Former Skinwalker Ranch owner Robert Bigelow’s wife Diane, 72, died on February 19, 2020, of myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia.

“The reason Bigelow got rid of the place was he was convinced that it killed his wife.” ~ Travis Taylor, said, re: the “hitchhiker effect” at Skinwalker Ranch. 

The number of “mysterious deaths” associated with the Skinwalker Ranch seems nil. Or the tip of the iceberg is merely being demonstrated, as shown via Diane Bigelow. And Kevin Burns, 65, executive producer of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, who died of a cardiac arrest, September 27, 2020.

Skinwalker Ranch,

Uintah County, Utah, U.S.

Prehistory to 1934 - Utes/Diné

1934–1994 – Kenneth and Edith Myers

1994–1996 – Terry and Gwen Sherman

1996–2016 – Robert Bigelow

2016–Present – Brandon Fugal

Current owner, Brandon Fugal

The danger of fans of the program being attracted to the physical location of the Skinwalker Ranch then ending in death has been seen due to other reality programming.

Savanna Bright, 15, died after being hit by a Norfolk Southern train on Sunday night, May 26, 2019, near Pope Lick Park, on the train tracks near the Pope Lick trestle, while searching for the Pope Lick Goat Man. Louisville, Kentucky media has confirmed that two adolescent females on the Pope Lick Train Trestle were stuck by a train near Pope Lick Road, and Taylorsville Road, in Louisville, Kentucky.

The area is known to be “notoriously dangerous” as it is alleged to be the home of the Pope Lick Monster. The creature is said to be part human and part goat.

The Pope Lick Monster is the subject of an urban legend and popularized in YouTube videos, as well as a 1988 film, The Legend of the Pope Lick Monster (director Ron Schildknecht); and a 2013 episode of Destination America’s Monsters and Mysteries in America (in “Ozarks”). There is also a haunted attraction themed after the tales surrounding the Pope Lick monster called the Legend at Pope Lick located at Pope Lick Park in the Parklands of Floyds Fork.

In 2016, Roquel Bain and her boyfriend Dave Knee decided to go to a "paranormal event" at the nearby Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a well-known haunted location often highlighted on “ghost hunter”-type reality programming. But with some time to fill, the couple decided to explore the Pope Lick Trestle and actively see if they could see the Pope Lick Monster. Bain met her tragic fate there.

The "Hitchhiker Effect" can be said to have had some grave links to this location as well as it seems to have to the Skinwalker Ranch.